Appearances of Impropriety  REWRITE
by StarTrekFanWriter
Summary: Always a boy!Noyoto Uhura / Always a girl!T'Spock.  Chapter 12 - After the Narada - staying warm and sane on the trip home.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.**  
>Special thanks to Beta Notes from the Classroom. Check out her latest, "Crossing the Equator" in my faves for SpockUhura goodness!

Author's note: This is a rewrite of my story "The Appearance of Impropriety", if chapters 1 – 3 look familiar it's because they are. I'll put a little summary of differences at the end of each chapter though, so you don't have to read the whole thing to notice the changes.

Sorry for the confusion, but the old story just felt like it was going down a rabbit hole. This sticks tightly to the movie script, but with a boy Nyota (Noyoto) and a girl Spock (T'Spock). It's a lot more fun!

Also, THIS STORY IS FINISHED. All I gotta do is post, so don't be afraid of me abandoning it!

**Chapter 1**

Tapping a finger in agitation, Cadet Noyoto Uhura scanned the crowded bar. No sign of Pike in the Iowa pisshole.

Noyoto was here with a mission: to get aboard the Enterprise when the future fleet flagship was done being built. He'd signed up for the simulation exercise in flyover country for two reasons: for the experience, and to meet Pike, the man on the short list to be the Captain of the flagship. Rumor had it Pike often came out to the local watering hole after exercises to meet cadets. If he did, Noyoto was going to be sure he shook the man's hand and made an impression.

He ran a hand over his almost non-existent hair. Keeping it buzzed short was incredibly practical, but it was a little chilly here in Iowa. Looking down at the menu, his eyes briefly lingered on the local swill, Red Duck Whiskey. He tilted his head. As a man who studied linguistics, human and alien, he had a deep interest in various cultures -and how they extended to alcoholic beverages.

Marking the whiskey he wanted with his finger, he held up a hand to summon the bartender.

"Don't do it," shouted a man a few seats down the bar, leaning over so he could see Noyoto around a big-headed, rigid-browed Xinga alien. "It tastes worse than the water in the pisser."

Noyoto dropped his hand. The guy was obviously a local. He was about Noyoto's age, nearly as tall, but not in a uniform. He was stockier too, not fat, muscular, and just a little heavier set and bulkier in the shoulders than Noyoto was. He might pack a slightly harder punch, but Noyoto would be faster. The guy wore an old leather biker jacket like a second skin. Tousled dirty blond hair hung over eyes noticeably blue even in the bar's dim light. His face looked like it had run into a fist a few too many times. In short, he looked like the kind of man who would know if the local swill tasted like the toilet.

"Thanks," said Noyoto, yelling over the head of the Xinga. "What do you recommend?"

"Stick to the national brands," shouted the stranger. Noyoto noticed the guy's movements and words were just a touch sloppy, like he'd been drinking for a while.

Holding up his hand, Noyoto signaled the bartender and ordered a shot of Jack.

Above the head of the alien, the local shouted, "So how long you boys in town for?"

"Just tonight," Noyoto shouted back, turning to nod at the bartender who placed a shot in front of him.

"What's your..." shouted the man, the last word getting lost in the din of the bar.

"Pardon?" Noyoto shouted back, turning once again to blue-eyed local boy.

"What's your..." shouted the man again. The last word was lost but Noyoto was decent at reading lips.

"Xenolinguistics," he yelled. The local guy probably had no idea what he was talking about, but it was the shortest description of his field and yelling around the Xinga was making him hoarse.

And was apparently making the Xinga annoyed. With a grunt the alien got up and moved to another corner of the bar.

Sliding up to Noyoto, the local said, "The study of alien languages, syntax, phonology and morphology."

Impressed that the guy seemed a smidgen brighter than he looked but not about to show it, Noyoto downed his shot. "Yep. You might say I have a talented tongue."

"I might," said the local. He smiled and held out a hand, "The name's Kirk."

Taking the proffered hand Noyoto said, "Uhura."

A movement at the entrance caught Noyoto's eye. He blinked. A familiar figure was walking towards the bar. Her posture was ramrod straight, her face pale, beautiful with full lips and dark eyes under straight bangs; but she was completely expressionless. Her short haircut was full and thick, delicately pointed ears just barely peeking out from beneath. The fitted instructor's uniform she wore accentuated full breasts, a neat waist and long legs.

"Well, hello," said Kirk under his breath. "Who is that...And can you teach me any Vulcan pick-up lines?"

"That," said Noyoto, "is Lieutenant Commander T'Spock. She is the director of my assistantship, and I will under no circumstance teach you any pick-up lines."

"You work with her?" said Kirk.

Noyoto nodded, eyes still on T'Spock. She didn't seem to have seen him. Instead she made her way to a corner of the bar and pulled out her comm. What was she doing here? She hadn't told Noyoto she was coming on this exercise. Of course, he hadn't brought up the matter with her either. They'd barely spoken a word beyond work since he'd begun working with her nearly a year ago. Oh, once she'd invited him out to dinner to thank him for his hard work in her lab, but it had been under the duress of her commanding officer. Said officer was convinced Noyoto would quit like the rest of T'Spock's assistants if T'Spock didn't make nice. Noyoto had politely declined the offer. She was a Vulcan. He didn't expect her to be friendly. Those other assistants who couldn't wrap their heads around that, well, that was their loss.

T'Spock was fair, and generous in her own cold way, even if she was demanding. She'd allowed Noyoto to present with her at a conference they attended the previous semester, and included his name on her papers.

"Man," said Kirk watching her, "if you're not hitting that, you're gay or insane or both."

"Director of my assistantship," said Noyoto, signaling the bartender. "I don't shit where I eat."

"Hmmpf," said Kirk in a voice that did not disguise his disbelief. "Don't tell me you don't think about it."

Actually, Noyoto did think about it. Quite a lot. But all he did was scowl in reply.

T'Spock was strictly off limits. He wasn't afraid of a challenge, but he needed the assistantship. Both to pad his resume and to prove a certain arrogant prick of a history of artificial transmissions professor wrong.

There was a Romulan talking in that 20th century radio recording, and Noyoto's research with T'Spock was going to prove it. Even if T'Spock didn't think so.

And he needed to get aboard the Enterprise when he graduated, and Hell, he just needed to graduate. Having an older brother who was practically a pirate made Noyoto feel an extra burden to do right, fly straight, and be the best. Getting into mischief with a superior officer was not acceptable. No matter how enticing...

Another movement at the entrance of the bar caught Noyoto's eye. A group of locals entered - large, a little bit older, clad in biker clothes and with an air of ownership about them. If Kirk was rough around the edges, they were just rough.

Scowling briefly at the new patrons, Kirk turned back to Noyoto. "Come on, just a few pick-up lines?"

"No," said Noyoto.

"Even just hello?"

"No."

Countering Kirk's attempts to learn snippets of Vulcan, Noyoto almost missed it when one of the rough looking guys went over to T'Spock. Noyoto swirled his drink in his glass. His jaw clenched. Wasn't any of his business.

Kirk followed his gaze. "Uh-oh," he said.

"Uh-oh?" said Noyoto.

"Wilkes and his gang are Xeno Nazis," said Kirk, picking up his drink and moving in T'Spock's direction. T'Spock was now turning her head and speaking to Wilkes, her beautiful face perfectly neutral.

Wilkes did not look happy, but he moved closer to T'Spock.

Uh-oh, indeed. Whatever he felt or did not feel for T'Spock, a large Xeno Nazi encroaching on a woman was just wrong. Noyoto passed Kirk in quick steps.

"You're a fucking alien!" said Wilkes.

"Hey," said Noyoto, going to the far side of T'Spock. "None of that." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kirk sipping a drink, looking at Wilkes over the edge of his glass.

"Shut-up, flyboy!" said Wilkes. "Guys like you are ruining it for us humans!"

Wilkes' crew was lining up behind him; Noyoto counted five. A few other locals were making their way over from across the bar. So far his fellow cadets seemed oblivious to what was going on. Across the room he caught sight of Giotto and a couple other would-be redshirts laughing amongst themselves.

"Easy, Wilkes," said Kirk.

Noyoto lifted an eyebrow. Kirk was either noble, drunk...or both.

"Maybe you can't count," Wilkes said. "There's six of us and only two of you, Jim Kirk."

Giving a quirky smile half smile that was not going to cool any tempers, Kirk said, "Well, then get six more and it will be a fair fight."

Okay. Kirk was definitely drunk.

Noyoto was about to point out his fellow cadets in the bar numbered as many as Wilkes' crew when T'Spock spoke.

"Three of us," she said standing up between Noyoto and Kirk. She was nearly as tall as the two of them, but thinner, more fragile. "There are three of us."

"Three of you?" Wilkes sneered a bit and turned to look at his companions. Looking back to T'Spock, he raised a hand as though to cup her chin. "You think that pretty little face of yours -"

Noyoto intercepted the hand at the wrist. The thought of this ignorant, ugly human touching her just rubbed him the wrong way.

Ripping his wrist away, Wilkes said, "Well, I see how it is. This is your little whore then, eh?"

Noyoto felt himself go hot; he pulled his fist back. Wilkes lunged forward, but before Noyoto had the satisfaction of connecting his fist with the other man's jaw, a blur of white and black was between them. A hand was at Wilkes' shoulder, and then he was on the floor moaning.

Noyoto stared at the ground.

"Oh," said Kirk.

Noyoto met the other man's eyes. Looking confused, Kirk said, "What was that?"

Noyoto shrugged. He didn't know.

"Nerve pinch," said T'Spock, standing above the still-moaning Xeno Nazi. And then Noyoto's composed, calm, controlled, lovely director of his assistantship did something completely unexpected. Raising her hands she took up a stance that clearly said to all those present, bring it on.

And that is when things got really fucked up.

x x x x

"You are a whore. Just like your human mother."

T'Spock stared at Desalvic, the Vulcan boy before her. Flanked by four other Vulcan boys, he looked to be about her own age or maybe a year older. She'd seen him before at school but did not associate with him. Like her, Desalvic and the other boys were in their dark school robes. But they were not at school. It was early evening and they were outside, between the towering red beehive buildings on the narrow streets of Shi'Kahr.

She had been called a whore and more many times before in her thirteen years. Whore. Illogical. Half-breed. Selfish. Unbonded. But usually by females, and always indirectly. T'Spock did have a few friends, mostly other unbonded girls, but in general she was shunned. It was a quiet thing. A whisper here or there that she could almost pretend she hadn't heard...if it weren't for the fact that she was so often quietly excluded. Despite her grades it was difficult to find study partners. She was the one not invited when a family hosted a learning activity. She intellectualized these slights away, but this...

She was actually afraid. They were larger and stronger than she was.

For months she missed the mental presence of her half-brother Sybok, although she carefully tried to school her mind not to. Now she felt acutely the lack of his physical presence, he'd always protected her…

She resisted a shudder. But that was before he had fallen under the influence of the V'tosh katur.

She shouldn't be afraid, should she? Among her mother's people, humans, and the V'tosh katur violence happened. But these were _logical_Vulcans. Even if she were outnumbered...Even if...she scanned the empty street quickly...they were alone.

"You are unbonded," he said. He nodded. His skin was flushed green. One of his hands tapped nervously at his side.

"Come, Desalvic," said a boy she recognized from school. "We must go. Leave her alone."

Desalvic shook his head, eyes glued to T'Spock. "You are unbonded. You will do. I need," he said.

Murmuring, the other boys pulled back. T'Spock heard one whisper to another, "What do we do?"

Fear was an emotion, and T'Spock refused to show it. Squaring her shoulders, she pretended Desalvic wasn't taller and stronger than her. Holding up her head she began to walk around the boys.

That was a mistake.

Rushing with a low cry, Desalvic reached towards her. T'Spock ducked and feinted to the left, but he caught her wrist and reeled her in towards him. His other hand went to her psi-points and he began mumbling the familiar incantation, but his mind, greedy and hungry, had already slipped into T'Spock's.

She could feel his need. His disdain for her. For himself.

It was horrible; T'Spock's stomach turned and she fought the urge to vomit. And yet, through her disgust she realized she was safer now with their minds linked. Although physically weaker she was the stronger telepath. With a scream she lashed out at his intrusive presence; her mind seized the deepest, most primitive parts within him, the ones that let his heart pump and let his lungs seize oxygen.

His hand and his mind withdrew and he stumbled backwards. He fell gasping to the ground. Standing above him, T'Spock trembled and considered finishing the job. As if responding to her thought, Desalvic's body contracted and he gasped.

Coming forward, one of the boys said, "T'Spock, are you alright? Please, we will call a healer for you."

A snarl like the sound of an angry sehlat arose...it took T'Spock an instant to realize it was coming from her.

"Desalvic did not mean it," said another.

The boys stood between her and where she wanted to go. Tightening her lips she shoved her way between them. Desalvic began moaning on the ground. T'Spock did not turn to look. Head held high, she marched down the narrow street. No one followed.

As soon as she turned the corner and was sure she was out of eyesight, she ran.

She didn't stop until she was home. Her mother, Amanda, was at the door. "T'Spock, what happened? Your father felt something through the bond -"

Without answering, T'Spock dropped her PADDs and went up the stairs two at a time.

"T'Spock," her mother called. "Please talk to me..."

T'Spock did not want to talk, and she resented her mother's entreaties. To talk of the event was to relive it. She wanted to purge herself of the experience, to throw up or slip out of her skin. She went to the sanitary cubicle, stripped off her clothes, and got into the sonic shower. Outside, her mother knocked at the door a few times and then there was silence.

The memory of Desalvic was so fresh and raw in her mind. His lingering disdain was more frightening than his need.

His disdain for what she was. Half-human. Unbonded - a selfish one.

The first she could not help. The second. She violently shook her head and thumped a hand against the wall.

Once she asked her mother why she was unbonded. Her mother laughed and said,

"Because I don't believe in it. You're half human and deserve to choose who you bond with. There is no biologic imperative for you." She'd winked at T'Spock and said, "And because your father will never believe anyone is good enough for his little girl."

As she had grown older she'd realized that although the first reason was completely honest, the second reason was a bit of evasion. It wasn't that there was no one good enough for T'Spock - it was that the boys put forward were not good enough. Even though she was as bright as any Vulcan, and a strong telepath, only parents with children in desperate circumstances would consider her. Their sons were barely telepathic - and likely to be especially violent in Pon Farr, or they were simpleminded - or both.

Her father turned all those potential matches down. The elder females in the family insisted that T'Spock's value as a potential partner would increase with age as she became more accomplished and as males lost their partners to sickness or accident. In such circumstances she was sure her father would accept a match.

Her father. The boy was obviously undergoing Pon Farr. It was rare for Vulcans her age, but not unheard of.

Her father...she took a deep breath.

She was closer to Sarek than she was to Amanda. T'Spock didn't have much in common with her mother. T'Spock wasn't the sweet, human daughter interested in fashion, music or romance stories she was sure her mother wanted. And T'Spock had so much trouble with human niceties, inquiring as to an individual's well being (T'Spock really didn't want to know), or pretending to be interested in one of Amanda's friend's baby pictures. Amanda had even gone so far as to call T'Spock thoughtless on one occasion - though she'd apologized later.

Sarek said T'Spock had Amanda's openness to new ideas, flexibility of thought, and resistance to 'group think' most Vulcans did not possess. But T'Spock saw more of her father in herself, even if her lips quirked accidentally to half smiles now and then, and her eyebrows had a tendency to dance on her forehead when she was surprised or intrigued. Her interests were more like Sarek's. She loved mathematics, and physics, chess, and music - worlds with clearly delineated rules. She enjoyed learning about new planets and life forms as much as her mother, but T'Spock's interests, like Sarek's, went deeper into the chemistry, physiology and microbiology of these things.

Her father, whom she loved and was closer to anyone else...he turned into...

She swallowed. Taking deep breaths, she surveyed her mind. The memory of the experience was still with her, but as much as it made her stomach drop, and her pulse quicken, Desalvic had not caused any lasting bond.

Closing her eyes she let the sonic shower buffet her for no less than 38.7 minutes.

When she got out of the shower she could hear her mother speaking to her great-aunt in the study. "The answer is still no," she heard her mother say.

Slipping a robe over herself, T'Spock walked slowly down the hall.

T'Samick, T'Spock's great-aunt by marriage, said, "Although she did not bond with him, when she attacked him..."

"Defended herself," T'Spock heard her mother say.

"She left a piece of herself in him," said T'Samick.

T'Spock dared to peek into the study. Her mother was standing before a large screen displaying T'Samick in ornate robes.

T'Spock blinked. Her father stood beside her mother, too. Her mother's hands were on her hips, her face was pinched, and T'Spock could hear her breathing heavily. Her father's face was its usual perfect mask of calm, but through the familial bond she felt a turmoil of emotions. Anger. Despair. Shame. Towards her? T'Samick? T'Spock could not tell.

Despite those emotions, when he spoke, his voice was controlled, almost flat. "You will need a healer in any case," he said.

The familial bond between T'Spock and Sarek was unusually strong; they could almost, but not quite, communicate in words. Only her bond with Sybok had been stronger – but that was severed.

Now, although Sarek did not turn she felt him realize her presence, and almost in the same instant she felt him compel her to stay back.

"Desalvic is from a wealthy and powerful family," T'Samick said. "If we were to accept him as part of our clan it would completely make up for Sybok's defection to the V'tosh ka'tur."

"No," said T'Spock's mother. Sometimes Amanda's refusal to go along with Vulcan customs embarrassed T'Spock, but now she was grateful.

"You are not Vulcan and do not understand our ways, Amanda." Turning her eyes to Sarek, T'Samick said, "Sarek, what do you say?"

T'Spock held her breath.

As Ambassador, Sarek was as dedicated to protecting his people as he was to upholding their traditions. He was extremely logical and possessed self-control T'Spock could only dream of. The only way in which Sarek had ever wavered from Vulcan custom was in his choosing Amanda as a spouse, and some accommodations he made to her in order to ensure a harmonious marriage. He'd made sure T'Spock participated in the kahs-wan survival ritual when she was six years old. He would have seen her bonded, too, if her prospects weren't so dim as a young child.

It was a Vulcan woman's duty to protect males from the ravages of Pon Farr. Perhaps he found her behavior illogical - maybe that was a reason for his shame. Perhaps he would insist on a bonding and all that would entail.

"In this matter my wife and I are of one mind," said Sarek. T'Spock exhaled audibly in relief.

Her father must have heard, but he did not turn away from her aunt on the view screen.

T'Samick said nothing for 3.5 seconds. T'Spock held her breath.

Then the old woman tilted her head. "Sarek, do not let what happened with T'Yavi influence your decision."

Feeling a rush of shame across the familial bond, T'Spock blinked. What did this have to do with Sybok's mother? T'Yavi had renounced logic and become V'tosh ka'tur after ending her bond to Sarek, and later died at the V'tosh ka'tur settlement. Sybok himself had joined the settlement when he was 21. Sarek, T'Spock and Amanda seldom spoke of him. Once Sybok had been T'Spock's closest confidant and friend, but after what he said to Amanda, what he'd accused Sarek of –

Shaking her head T'Spock focused on the present.

Amanda had dropped her hands from her hips and now had two fingers pressed against Sarek's own. Standing rigid Sarek said, "The boy needs and deserves an older woman with experience."

Her great-aunt sucked in a loud breath and drew herself up. "Very well." The screen went black.

Amanda immediately spun around. A moment later she was wrapping her arms around T'Spock. "T'Spock, T'Spock," she murmured. "I am so sorry, I am so sorry."

It was the sort of confusing, illogical, human thing her mother would say. "I am unhurt." T'Spock said. She lightly touched her mother's elbows to reassure her, just as her father often did in similar circumstances. Although she didn't mind her mother's displays of affection when they were in private, responding always felt awkward.

Her mother pulled back a bit, hands still on T'Spock's shoulders. For the first time T'Spock saw the glisten of unshed tears in her mother's eyes.

T'Spock wanted to bring her hands up to her mother's and transmit reassurance through the empathic link that would result. But the memory of Desalvic's mind in hers still left her feeling unsteady and nauseous.

Her mother shook her head silently and then embraced T'Spock fully again.

"You defended yourself well," said Sarek.

Shamefully, T'Spock could not meet his eyes. Seeing Desalvic in his altered state was like seeing a little piece of her father she didn't want to know.

Sarek must have felt it. She felt a flash of despair that made her heart sink from the normal place in her side to somewhere just above her hip.

Bowing his head, Sarek moved silently around T'Spock and her mother.

"Father," T'Spock called as he stepped into the hall.

Sarek stopped.

She wanted to say something, let him know that she still loved him - especially after protecting her from her aunt's designs. But that was not the Vulcan way. Or even her way. Such words caught in her throat, and now she felt too distraught to transmit anything consoling through the family bond. But something needed to be said. Still not meeting his gaze, T'Spock said, "Father, I would like to resume my studies of suus mahna." T'Spock had given up her practice of the traditional martial arts long ago. But now - she wouldn't let herself be physically or mentally assaulted again.

"Of course," said Sarek. And then he headed down the hall, leaving T'Spock alone with her mother.

x x x x

With a cry, one of the other Xeno Nazis launched himself at T'Spock. In some part of

Noyoto's brain it registered that T'Spock could handle herself. Another more primitive part of his brain yelled, "He's going to attack a girl! Asshole." Grabbing the guy's arm,

Noyoto spun him around and decked him squarely beneath the jaw.

As the man tumbled backwards, Kirk yelled, "Oh, yeah! It's on!"

The next few moments were a blur. The whole bar erupted, with Noyoto, Kirk and

T'Spock at the eye of the storm. Noyoto's heart sort of fell. This was not going to be good for his record. But then a fist came in the direction of his face and he lost thought of anything except not going down right now.

Noyoto was dimly aware of T'Spock, eerily quiet, a blur of fists. On the other side of her was Kirk maniacally laughing and goading the other guys on, still impossibly holding a drink in one hand. Noyoto caught a glimpse of Kirk taking a long swig and spraying a fine mist into someone's eyes. At that moment someone tried to grab Noyoto's neck from behind. Tucking in his chin just in time to spare his wind pipe, he heaved the guy over his shoulder.

When he came up for air it was to see Giotto wading through the fray, knocking guys left and right. Dodging a fist, he lost sight of the large security officer. And then he heard,

"Hey, Cupcake, I'm on your side!" Spinning around, he watched helplessly as Giotto planted a fist into Kirk's face. Kirk flew backwards onto the bar.

"Giotto!" yelled Noyoto, ripping off his jacket. "He's with us."

Impossibly Giotto heard Noyoto. Looking a bit bashful, he turned to the prone Kirk. Noyoto read his lips as he said, "I am so, so, so, sorry."

"Look out behind you!" yelled Kirk as a guy launched himself at Giotto from behind.

As the big security officer turned, Noyoto yelled, "Kirk, catch!" and threw him his jacket from across the room.

Kirk caught it. Nyoto turned back into the fray just in time to watch T'Spock head butt a guy's head. There was a sickening crack...and not from T'Spock.

Something exploded with a crack and there was the sound of breaking glass. The local in front of him looked behind Noyoto towards the bar. Said local's eyes got wide, he dropped the chair, and bolted.

Uh-oh.

Another explosion ripped through the bar. Daring to peek behind him, Noyoto saw the bartender brandishing an antique shotgun.

The bar went silent. Fists dropped. Next to him T'Spock straightened. Kirk started laughing.

"That's enough!" shouted the bartender. "And you shut up, Kirk."

Grabbing a shot someone had abandoned at the bar and knocking it down in one gulp,

Kirk stumbled over to Noyoto and T'Spock. "You guys are awesome. What are you doing in Starfleet?"

And then he promptly fainted at T'Spock's feet. T'Spock touched the local's shoulder, now clad in a crimson coat, gingerly with a toe. "That is your jacket, cadet?"

Before Noyoto could comment on the matter, a high-pitched seaman's whistle pierced the air.

Noyoto's stomach fell, and in Ferengi he said, "Green gobs of mildewy earwax."

"Cadet," said T'Spock, "may I remind you of Starfleet's strict rules and regulations regarding profanity?"

Noyoto's mouth fell open. Turning to her, he tried to determine if she was making some sort of sick joke. She met his eyes and tilted her head, beautiful features as composed as ever. Granted, he had just uttered the worst expletive of the Ferengi language, but in the Standard translation it was so benign - and after he'd just put his record at risk during a fight for her honor. Brow furrowing he was about to say, "In light of our impending court martial for getting in a bar brawl, that hardly seems to matter, Sir."

But before he could get the words out, the voice of Captain Pike rang out across the room.

"What the Hell?"

**A/N:**

I think this chapter flows better than in the original, I tried to smooth it out and get rid of any extra words.

Big differences…Sarek and T'Spock's relationship is shown to be deeper, she's closer to him than she is to Amanda (hey, it happens!). Sybok is mentioned as being a very close confidant.

If you read and enjoyed I would love some reviews!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.**

Special thanks to beta Notes from the Classroom, she reviewed this Chapter TWICE! Check out her latest "Crossing the Equator" in my faves for Pike/#1 and Spock/Uhura goodness.

**Chapter 2**

When she heard the seaman's whistle, T'Spock's heart was pounding madly in her side, her fists stung, and she felt bruises blossoming on her chin and upper arms. She straightened at the shrill shriek, but inside, her emotions were a roiling sea.

Sarek and Amanda resisted having her bonded to Desalvic. T'Spock's friend Velan's parents had not. Only a few years older than T'Spock, Valen had a lively and curious mind. Like T'Spock she dreamed of going to the Vulcan Science Academy one day.

After the bonding and Pon Farr with Desalvic, Velan was no longer T'Spock's friend, or even the same person. Her family gained status and wealth. Velan gained a child, and a bond-mate who was extremely xenophobic and racist. Velan wasn't a strong telepath; she couldn't resist her bond-mate's pull.

The lesson T'Spock took away from this was that if you did not permanently incapacitate an aggressor, you just made them someone else's problem.

This evening she wasn't just defending herself, she was defending the shy Xinga who she spotted cowering in the corner. She was defending the Tellurite she'd seen leaving when she walked in, and the Vulcan engineers she knew who were consulting on the

Enterprise's construction. She was defending every alien who came to this establishment, and Velan.

She was satisfied that she had done the right thing. She would go to the court martial with a clear conscience - and yet. The events of this evening were close to home. It was hard to step back from the encounter and cool down. She should be able to do this - but could not. She was only half Vulcan.

Beside her, above the sound of her own beating heart, Uhura said in Ferengi, "Green gobs of mildewy earwax."

"Cadet," said T'Spock automatically, "may I remind you of Starfleet's strict rules and regulations regarding profanity?"

She didn't want him compounding the trouble he was in with a frivolous indulgence in expletives. But as soon as the words were in the air, Uhura turned his head sharply to her. Brows pulled together, eyes narrowed, he had the same look in his eye she'd seen when he'd warded that first errant hand away from her.

She'd angered him. T'Spock was a poor reader of facial expressions but even she could see that. Uhura never got angry at her. Not once in her lab in ten months of assistantship - nor did he break down in tears - as had one of her other assistants.

She drew back a bit surprised.

Ironically Pike's first words to them were, "What the Hell?"

Taking a deep breath, she willed her heartbeat to subside.

Around her, locals were running out of the bar. Cadets straightened their shoulders and locked eyes straight ahead.

Pike's eyes were on T'Spock. "Lieutenant T'Spock, is One present?" Pike said, referring to his first officer.

"No, sir," said T'Spock, her voice surprisingly level, even to herself. "She requested I meet her here but was diverted by a problem with the air duct assembly on the Enterprise."

"That makes you the highest ranking officer in this room, Lieutenant. I expect a thorough explanation for what's happened here."

"Yes, sir," said T'Spock.

Turning to the cadets he said, "The rest of you clear out! Now!"

As the other cadets rushed to leave the scene, beside her Cadet Uhura hesitated. The room was nearly empty when he let out a sigh, kneeled, gathered the local still wearing the Starfleet uniform jacket in his arms, and headed to the door.

Pointing at the limp body, Pike said, "Stop. Who is that and what are you doing with him?"  
>Halting quickly, Uhura said. "This is Jim Kirk, a local, sir. He should be checked out by our medics."<p>

T'Spock tilted her head. She should have requested medical help for the local man immediately. Her human assistant was ahead of her.

Pike scowled. "Jim Kirk?"

"Yes, sir. I heard one of the Xeno Nazis call him that."

Tilting his head, Pike said quietly, "Jim Kirk is a Xeno Nazi punk?"

"No, sir," said Uhura, "He was on our side."

"Our side?" said Pike looking a trifle...amused? Irritated? The way his eyebrows went up and the inflection in his tone - it was difficult for T'Spock to read.

Stepping forward, T'Spock said, "Yes, sir. A few of their number attempted to accost me. Along with Mr. Uhura here, Mr. Kirk tried to dissuade them verbally."

"Remind me never to let Mr. Uhura or Mr. Kirk try to negotiate on my behalf, Lieutenant." He scowled at Uhura. "What is your specialty, cadet?"

"Communications, sir," said Uhura, his gaze several inches above Pike's head.

"Uh-huh," said Pike. "An auspicious beginning to your career."

T'Spock raised an eyebrow. It was a fallacy of logic for Pike to take such a random incident and sum up her assistant's professional future. And it was insulting. She would never accept less than the best for her assistantship. Straightening, T'Spock said, "In every aspect of his field, Cadet Uhura is second to none. He was one of my top students, has demonstrated on multiple occasions exceptional aural sensitivity, and he has an unparalleled ability to identify anomalies in subspace transmission tests. He is in no way responsible for this situation, sir. I incapacitated the first of the Xeno Nazis."  
>She glanced at Uhura. She incapacitated one first, but only because she hadn't given Uhura the opportunity. Keeping that observation to herself she said, "From there the situation degenerated."<p>

"I'll say." Pike gazed around the room. T'Spock followed his eyes as they roamed over broken chairs and tables, spilled drinks, and the bartender bent over and grumbling, retrieving large pieces of shattered glassware from the floor.

Pike's brows drew together. "A Vulcan...started a bar room brawl."

"Sir," said Uhura before T'Spock could respond. "She was defending herself."

T'Spock's eyes went to Uhura, still holding the limp form of Jim Kirk in his arms.

"Is this true, Lieutenant?" Pike said.

T'Spock nodded.

Pike sighed. "And Vulcans never lie."

T'Spock raised an eyebrow. Lying was very difficult for her. Sidestepping the truth was not. It hardly seemed relevant or prudent to point this out.

From Uhura's arms, Kirk moaned and said, "Put me down. You're emasculating me in front of the green-blooded hottie."

T'Spock's nostrils flared in indignation. Her fists clenched. When she stood before the Vulcan Science Academy's Admittance Council she noticed there was only one female on the board. Vulcans were a terribly logical species. It was logical that if one partially or completely took off seven to fourteen years for child bearing and rearing, that one would not be as accomplished as one's peers. And yet it rankled her. How much had it been by choice, and how much had been due to circumstances like Velan's?  
>When the head of the council said it was remarkable that she had achieved so much "despite her disadvantage," she said raised an eyebrow and replied, "Do you refer to the fact that I am half human or female and unbonded?"<p>

The situation was better in Starfleet, but still prejudices and biology did not die. Women didn't take as demanding roles. And some men and women still did not take orders as gracefully from a female commanding officer.

T'Spock agonized over whether her decision to shy away from the command track in favor of research was prompted by genuine interest in science or a reflexive shying away from authority and challenge. She made up for it by not turning down any assignment, no matter how mentally taxing, and she kept herself in peak physical shape. She was at least as strong as any man...any human man, at any rate.

Now this human, Kirk, took all that hard work to define herself as more than her gender away with a single flippant comment.

Uhura immediately let Kirk drop with an unceremonious thud. T'Spock restrained a small smile.

"Ow! Not like that!" Kirk moaned.

Walking over, Pike said, "James T. Kirk, son of George and Winona Kirk?"

Pulling himself up into a sitting position with a wince, Kirk signaled the bartender.

Looking up at Pike he said. "I don't know why that's any of your business, old man."

"Lieutenant, Cadet," Pike said. "Clear out."

T'Spock tilted her head and headed towards the door. Uhura fell into step beside her. Just as they reached the door, Pike said, "Lieutenant, don't think you're getting off scot-free for this. There are several days' worth of paperwork that will need to be completed if I'm going to clear your names. You'll be filling it out."

Tension T'Spock hadn't realized existed evaporated from her shoulders. Beside her Cadet Uhura let out a breath. T'Spock nodded curtly at Pike. "Yes, sir." And then she stepped briskly through the door, Cadet Uhura behind her. He seemed to be hyperventilating when he should be pleased. How odd.

"Cadet, is something wrong?" she asked as they made their way to the barracks through the cold night air.

"Did I just hear right? Are we going to get out of this with unblemished records?" Uhura said.

"I believe that was the Captain's point, Cadet," T'Spock said.

Uhura's face split into an enormous smile and he laughed out loud.

The display of emotion was...off putting. Uhura was never expressive in her presence. She hoped he would not touch her in his excitement.

Whenever she saw him around campus in interactions with others, he was smiling too wide, laughing too loud...or touching people. Slaps on the back, handshakes, even kisses on cheeks. If she didn't know his academic record and diligence in her lab, she would peg him as an attractive human that fluttered through life on good looks and charm more than competency.

Smiling at T'Spock, Uhura said, "Sorry, sir. It's just that a few moments ago my entire Starfleet career was flashing before my eyes." Letting out a deep breath he laughed again. "But now it looks like I still have a chance to serve aboard the Enterprise."

T'Spock knew about Uhura's desire to serve aboard the flagship. He'd informed her of it the day she interviewed him to be her assistant, and on no fewer than 11 occasions since then.

She began walking towards the barracks. The cool night air was returning her calm. And her curiosity. Why had Uhura defended her? "Your 'unqualified desire' to serve aboard the Enterprise did not seem to concern you a few minutes ago," she said, quoting him from his interview with her. "The Starfleet handbook requires cadets to avoid skirmishes with civilians and -"

"To call military police in the event of an altercation," Uhura said, his smile gone. "I know what the rule books says, sir." Narrowing his eyes, Uhura said, "You could not have fought them all, Sir."

"Your assessment of the situation is accurate," T'Spock said. Had she offended him unintentionally?

"Abandoning you would have been wrong on principle," said Uhura.

"What principles are those, Cadet?" T'Spock said genuinely curious in the philosophical underpinnings of his actions. Logic dictated that Vulcans disobey orders when they were inappropriate. But Vulcans possessed such a herd mentality they rarely did so.

"The ones my father drilled into me," said Uhura, scowling and falling silent.

T'Spock decided not to seek further clarification. This was the first time she'd really spoken to him outside the context of work, and it was not going well. Just another reason not to become 'chummy' with co-workers.

She covertly hazarded a glance in his direction. He wasn't looking straight ahead towards the barracks but towards the lights of the ship yard where the Enterprise was being assembled.

As if sensing her gaze, he turned towards her. Jaw tightening, he nodded curtly and looked straight ahead.

He was still angry. She tended to be as off putting to humans as she was to Vulcans. Vulcans found her too emotional; humans found her just the opposite. She'd lost no fewer than four human assistants for being "too demanding," "too cold," and for "personal incompatibilities" - and then there was the young man she somehow managed to make cry. She hadn't missed them, actually. They'd all been computer programming majors - and somehow more hindrance than help.

Uhura's skills were complementary to her own; he'd put her months ahead in her research into subspace signal signatures in radio frequencies. Commander Sharpton, her commanding officer, had ordered her not to lose Uhura. Now he was visibly angry. Was she on the verge of losing the only assistant she actually needed?

She stole a glance over at Uhura, he was once again looking off into the distance where the Enterprise's lights shone in the immense scaffolding holding it aloft. T'Spock stopped.

"I have access to the Enterprise."

Halting beside her, Uhura said, "Sir?"

Oddly afraid to look him in the eye, T'Spock looked at the ground and said, "On suggestion of my mentor, Pike's Number One, I was brought here to survey the progress on the integration of the Enterprise's various computer systems."

She looked up at him. "Including the Universal Translator. I could use your help calibrating it." Not a lie. She could use his help, though she did not need it.

Eyes wide he said, "Right now?"

It was late, he had to be onboard a shuttle back to San Francisco in the morning, and humans did require a great deal of sleep.

"It is not an order," T'Spock clarified quickly. "Only...an offer."

Uhura smiled, "Let's go."

He seemed happy. T'Spock let out a breath in relief.  
>They changed their direction and headed towards the shipyards. T'Spock noted she had to quicken her pace to keep up with Uhura's quickening strides. "How many dialects of Ferengi does the UT accomodate?" he asked.<p>

"Nine," said T'Spock.

"And have you confirmed it registers earwax as a profanity?" Uhura said, his symmetrical features splitting into a wide grin.

T'Spock blinked. It was a reference to his utterance earlier this evening. And a joke. Humans joked to cut tension. T'Spock could calculate the value of pi towards infinity, was a 3D chess champion, spoke only a few less languages than Uhura, multi dimensional mathematical formulas were as clear to her as the written word, and she and Sarek, did in fact, enjoy joking with her mother. There was a witty rejoinder to Uhura, but T'Spock was at a loss as to what it was. "In fact, I have not checked," she said lamely.

"Luckily you have me as your aide," Uhura said.

She decided not to comment on the illogic of the concept of "luck."

**A/N:  
><strong>Changes:T'Spock has some reflections on Vulcan gender relations, she remembers how only one of the judges for the VSA had been female (it was something I noticed in the movie). She remarks on the "logic" of this, and also how she feels that Kirk's flippant sexism takes away from all her hard work.

I actually think that more women aren't in leadership positions in our society is in great deal to choice. I have chosen to work from home, rather than work in an office 9 – 5 because working from home gives me more opportunity to be with my kids. A lot of my friends make similar decisions that are limiting and liberating at the same time. These decisions do cut us off from a lot of traditional jobs in authority though, and if we re-enter the regular workforce we may have less experience. (Incidentally, I do know women whose choice to stay out of the regular workforce leads to a more, not less, money).

At least in the U.S., I think that although there is still sexism, a lot of this is by choice. In other societies women are discriminated much more – and sometimes it's silent and insidious. Sometimes laws to remove that discrimination also make it worse!

Anyway, I think the Vulcan discrimination would be the quiet, "logical" sort.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.**

Special thanks to beta Notes from the Classroom, she reviewed this Chapter TWICE! Check out her latest "Crossing the Equator" in my faves for Pike/#1 and Spock/Uhura goodness.

**Chapter 3**

"Hikaru, Cadet Sulu, is going to bring my gear to the shuttle," Noyoto said rubbing his eyes. He and T'Spock were walking in the Enterprise's shadow. In the east early morning light was rising above the plain. There was no use going back to the barracks; T'Spock had called to excuse him from check-in and he was closer now to the departure point anyway.

They had worked until some technicians had turned off the power in their sector for some diagnostics of their own. But not before he'd left his mark on his ship. His name was next to diagnostic testing results and modifications from today's date, and there it would remain until she was decommissioned. He was part of the Enterprise's history.  
>He had the slow burning energy of someone who hadn't slept in over 24 hours. Rubbing his head he paused, "Do I smell bacon?"<p>

Next to him T'Spock raised her nose. "Yes." Tentatively sniffing the air she said, "I wonder if it is made from tank tissue...There is a cantina over there." She pointed to a spot not far from the shuttle yard.

"I am hungry," said Noyoto. Actually...he was famished. He'd been too caught up in working to notice. He didn't have anywhere to be in the next hour or so.

He looked at T'Spock. After she pointed out the inadvisability of his helping her, and questioned his principles he'd been genuinely angry at her, for the first time ever. But then she'd taken him aboard the Enterprise...

Why eat alone if he could help it? "You want to get breakfast?" he said, not really expecting her to say yes.

To his surprise she said,"That would be acceptable."

He was even more surprised when they ordered. T'Spock ordered as much as he did, and except for eggs, she ordered almost exactly the same items. "I thought Vulcans were vegans," he said. "You just ordered bacon?"

T'Spock blinked. "It is bacon from tissue culture; it never had the consciousness of a living organism attached, nor even been alive in the strictest definition of the word. It is not immoral."

Noyoto tilted his head and smiled. "And it's delicious."

Leaning forward as though about to tell Noyoto something confidential of great import, T'Spock said quietly, "I agree."

It was just too charming; Noyoto laughed.

"What?" said T'Spock, tilting her head.

"No disrespect, sir. It's just not how I would have pictured you a day ago." Shaking his head he said, "A bacon-eating, bar room brawl starting, head butting -"

T'Spock stiffened as soon as he said "bar room brawl."

Noyoto stopped. "I'm sorry, you didn't start it, not really. And..." What kind of world must this seem to her? "I'm sorry that those guys are even the same species as I am."

"It is illogical to apologize. Their behavior is hardly your fault."

Tilting his head he said ruefully, "Yeah, but I bet they don't have that kind of violence on Vulcan."

T'Spock straightened. A hand that she had resting on the table clenched but she said nothing. It was such a small thing - and yet. The moment suddenly felt too heavy, and Noyoto suddenly felt like he knew too much.

"We do not have the type of violence we experienced last night," T'Spock said.

Noyoto's grandfather used to say what was unsaid was more important than what was spoken aloud.

Not that type of violence, but another. He felt like he'd just glimpsed a world he wasn't supposed to see. He was curious; but T'Spock's eyes had gone to the window, and something in that understated act of evasion made him think something beyond Vulcan propriety made it wrong to ask.

x x x x

T'Spock turned her head away from Uhura towards the window. She'd said too much. And Uhura's sudden somber silence made her think perhaps he understood.

Their food and T'Spock watched silently with Uhura as the waitress placed it on the table.

"So," said Uhura, a tightness between his brows dropping away, "Number One is your mentor?"

It was a change of topic and a kindness. T'Spock felt her shoulders relax.

"Yes," T'Spock said.

Uhura was ignoring his food, elbows on the table, long tapered fingers steepled beneath his chin. He was just slightly taller than T'Spock. Unlike many of the male cadets, it was obvious that he didn't spend excessive time at the gym building up upper body strength at the expense of his core and lower body. He was perfectly proportioned in T'Spock's mind, long and lean, strong in the most functional way. The early morning sun was casting a beam across him that made his brown skin and eyes appear nearly orange, so different from the bright white light bulbs in her lab that gave him a chalky pallor.

"I see you in a new light this morning," she said, tilting her head.

Uhura blinked and straightened, moving his hands beneath the table, and T'Spock realized the ineptness of her non sequitur. On Vulcan _what_ she was made associations awkward. On earth _who_ she was made her social interactions just as clumsy. Her father called her a child of two worlds. She thought bitterly what that really meant was she did not belong to either.

"As I see you," Uhura said.

His echo of her gracelessly worded observation washed over her like a balm. And made her strangely uncomfortable at the same time. How much did he see?

Uhura smiled and picked up a fork, "But don't worry, I won't let it negatively impact my efficiency in the lab."

It was a life raft if T'Spock had ever seen one. She grabbed hold with both hands. "I would not expect so," she said, picking up her own fork feeling herself go warm. His neat smoothing of her social ineptitude made her feel...safe.

"Have to prove you wrong about that Romulan visitor," Uhura said.

Whatever her feelings, T'Spock could not let that bit of illogic stand. "Might I remind you that the odds that recording is anything more than a human prank are nearly one million to -"

"Everybody wins the lottery sometime," said Uhura. He put a piece of bacon in his mouth and smiled.

"- to one." T'Spock tilted her head. "And the statement is illogical. Not everyone wins the lottery. Sometimes no one wins the lottery."

Swallowing his bacon, Uhura said, "Okay, slip of the tongue. Sometimes somebody wins the lottery." He smiled again. "Is that better?"

"It is factually accurate, yes." He didn't seem perturbed at all by her observation of his illogic. Which was rather a relief. Sometimes people become annoyed. As much as she realized that, she felt nearly unable to help herself. Sloppy thinking was as uncomfortable to her as a stone in her shoe.

Of course, that made his motivation to become her assistant a bit unsettling. He'd found an odd 20th century radio transmission with what sounded like a Romulan saying "switching to subspace" amidst the static.

T'Spock had discovered that subspace chatter could be found in regular radio waves if one had a wide range of frequencies layered them upon one another. However, before any sentient sounds could be heard in the subspace range, naturally occurring subspace noise—the "chatter" of the planets and the stars—had to be teased out. Unfortunately, each system's naturally occurring noise was distinct, it's own particular language. Learning that language was a matter of time-consuming observation; only one solar system could be decoded at a time.

Raising an eyebrow as he speared a piece of bacon with unconcealed gusto, T'Spock said, "Might I further remind you, that we have not received orders for which system we will begin working on next. It would be far more advantageous for us to study a system in the neutral zone, or near a remote outpost so that Starfleet has alternate means of communication in such strategic areas."

T'Spock took a bite of her own bacon. It was very good, salty, greasy, savory with just the right of crispness.

"Yeah, I'm working on that..." said Uhura gazing out the window.

Swallowing, T'Spock blinked. "Working on that?"

"I remind Commander Sharpton of our Romulan friend," said Uhura picking at the food on his plate with a fork. "You know, whenever I bump into her."

T'Spock resisted an urge to roll her eyes. "And then I'm sure you've convinced her you are quite mad. It would be quite illogical for Starfleet to decode a system where multiple subspace stations exist."

Uhura brightened. "But we are an illogical species!" He put another piece of bacon on his fork.

"So I have observed," said T'Spock.

"This is some fine fake piggy," he said eying the morsel on his fork. Smiling at her and meeting her eyes in a way that strangely threatened to flush her ears green, Uhura popped the piece of bacon into his mouth.

x x x x

"Cadet," said T'Spock, as they neared the shuttles on the tarmac on the western side of the Enterprise's construction area, "This is where I leave you."

Noyoto drew to a halt and turned. It was now nearly 08:00. He was wired from lack of sleep, he felt like he could run a 5K easily, but at the edges of his consciousness there were the threads of deep exhaustion. As soon as he fell asleep he wouldn't be able to wake if a supernova hit him.

"Sir..." He straightened. "Thank you."

T'Spock tilted her head.

"For the chance to go aboard the Enterprise," Noyoto said.

"You are welcome," said T'Spock. She hesitated for a beat, as though there were something more she wanted to say. Abruptly nodding, she turned and headed towards the officers' shuttle.

Noyoto rubbed his head and watched her go, the morning light turning the charcoal gray of her uniform a fiery red. She was so beautiful, courageous, brilliant...and odd. He shook his head. Alien, not odd. How much did he care either way? Not much.  
>He winced. Not that he should be thinking about this. T'Spock was off limits. Completely off limits.<p>

He tilted his head as she rounded a corner in the distance, her perfectly proportioned frame briefly in profile.

Off limits...for now. There was nothing that said he couldn't be friendly. Perhaps plant a seed for later...

"Uhura," called a familiar voice. Noyoto jumped. Turning, he saw Sulu coming in his direction, two bags of gear over a shoulder. Swinging one around, Sulu threw it in his direction, "Catch."  
>Noyoto caught the soft projectile. "Thanks."<p>

Noyoto was stowing his bag when Sulu said something.

"What?" said Noyoto.

"What was so important that you couldn't make it back to the barracks last night? And I've only asked it three times."

Rubbing his face, Noyoto said, "The Enterprise; had to test her UT. Sorry, man, no sleep."

Sulu huffed a laugh and said something that may have been, "That's awesome." They ducked to enter the shuttle. As they strapped themselves in between two cadets, Noyoto's comm chimed.

Flipping it open, Noyoto blinked in surprise. It was a message from Commander Sharpton, forwarded from T'Spock. The subject was "Research priorities for fall semester." In the body, before the forwarded section, T'Spock had commented, "Humans are illogical." Noyoto scanned down to Sharpton's message.

_In light of the possible historical significance of certain transmissions recorded in the late 20th century, I have decided that the first solar system to be decoded should be Sol._

Grinning ear to ear, Noyoto tapped a reply to T'Spock. _Very illogical. I promise not to gloat, Sir.  
><em>

Just as he pressed send a loud thump caught his attention.

"Ouch, that had to hurt," Sulu said.

Glancing up, Noyoto's jaw dropped. Standing under the first low beam of the shuttle's frame, Jim Kirk rubbed his head with one hand. Something red was clasped tightly in the other. He looked rougher and more unkempt than ever, dark circles under his eyes, his face bruised and bloody.

"Whoa," Sulu said, "they must be low on their recruiting quota."

Seeing Noyoto, Kirk saluted with a cocky smile and threw the red thing he was clutching in Noyoto's direction.

Catching the red thing automatically, it took a moment for Noyoto to register that it was his coat smelling of alcohol and tobacco in his hands. "Thanks, man," Noyoto said. "You joining us?"

"Looks like it," said Kirk, settling in across the aisle a few seats down.

Noyoto's brain was just digesting this response - when Giotto, the security officer who'd decked Kirk the night before, leaned out of his seat. "Are you alright? I am soooo sorry. I just got carried away."

"I'm okay," Kirk said, looking a little uncomfortable.

"See, he's okay, Cupcake," said one of the other security track cadets.

"Your nickname stuck," said Giotto.

"Uh..." said Kirk.

Noyoto's eyes widened.

Smiling, Giotto said, "I like it...it'll confuse my enemies. When I was a kid we had this Rottweiler named Fluffy -"

He was interrupted by an attendant chasing a man down the aisle, "You will take a seat sir."

"I had a seat," the man protested. He wasn't as bloody as Kirk, but he looked about as worn out - unshaven, with dark circles under his eyes. Noyoto would have pegged him in his mid thirties.

"Definitely low on their quota," said Sulu under his breath.

Noyoto lay his head back as the man sat next to Jim. Closing his eyes he was vaguely aware of the guy going off on Kirk about various space diseases. Poor Kirk, he just seemed like a magnet for trouble and weirdness.

The last thing Noyoto heard as he slipped into unconsciousness was that old guy saying, "I think I may throw up on you."

**A/N:**

No fence hopping sequence. I felt like it wasn't really needed. Other than that this chapter is just a little smoother (I hope). T'Spock reflects that being a child of two worlds means she's really a child of none, and thinks that she likes that Uhura smoothes over her awkwardness.

If you read and enjoyed, please let me know! Next chapter is where things take off in a really different direction!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.**

Special thanks to Beta Notes from the Classroom for reading this TWICE. Check out her latest, "Crossing the Equator" in my faves for Spock/Uhura goodness!

**This chapter is when we take off in new directions...just hang in there through the first few paragraphs! **

**3 Years Later**

Noyoto hit the power button on his PADD. The tiny device dimmed as he stood from his seat in the lecture hall. Behind him someone said, "Yo, Uhura, Kirk - you going to study with us?"

Noyoto smiled. "I'd love to." It was a lie; Jensen and Kwai weren't keeping up in this History of Xeno Civ Level IV course. Studying with them was a waste of time. "But," he added, "I have to report to the long range sensory array."

"I'd love to, too," said Kirk with a leer and a wink, "but I have an important date." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Noyoto repressed the urge to roll his eyes. Kirk had been pulling this stunt for the last three years. But Kirk was still the best study partner Noyoto had ever had, even if he did give Noyoto shit for not being on the command track. Noyoto was more interested in the languages, cultures, histories and technologies of new civilizations to want to be burdened with the bureaucratic crap that went along with command, and he was man enough to know it. He was also man enough to beat Kirk in hand to hand combat, could outrun him, and except in computer science and advanced mathematics, held his own against genius farm boy.

"Figures," said Kwai bitterly.

"It's not fair that you never study, Kirk. At least Uhura works hard to blow the curve," said Jensen.

Winking, Kirk sauntered up the aisle, but he did look back once at Noyoto.

Narrowing his eyes, Noyoto mouthed the words "You are an ass," over Jensen and Kwai's heads.

"See ya," said Kirk, saluting to Noyoto.

Six hours and about fifteen minutes later, Noyoto half jogged, half walked into the reference section of the library. Knowledge of what he'd just heard in the lab making his feet feel like lead and his skin feel cold and clammy as he made his way deep into the stacks. Tucked away there were two seats and a low table he'd discovered in an unobtrusive nook.

Kirk was already there, reading glasses on, hair askew - Kirk never could keep his hands out of it when studying. He was bent over a PADD-like device of alien design. A stack of PADDs and books of non-human origin were strewn haphazardly on the table in front of him.

"You're over an hour late," he said without looking up.

"I sent you a message. Didn't you check your comm?" said Noyoto, sitting down and compulsively straightening the reference materials on the table.

Looking more like a befuddled professor than a command track cadet, Kirk looked over the edge of the chair. "Oh, that's why it was beeping." He reached to pick it up.

"You're going to command a starship? Are you going to ignore the Klingons when they're beeping too?" said Noyoto.

"I perform better under stress," said Kirk looking at his comm. "Holy shit!" He looked up at Noyoto. "This for real?"

Lowering his voice Noyoto said, "Yeah, that's why I'm late. I'm the best Romulan speaker, so they kept me in the lab."

"A whole Klingon armada destroyed, by Romulans?" said Kirk. "This is a lot more than just a few missing Klingon and Federation ships."

Noyoto nodded. Kirk was one of the only people who was following the goings on between the Federation and the Klingons in the neutral zone as deeply as he did. For years ships from both Empire and Federation had been disappearing. Both sides blamed the other, but there was very little evidence to implicate either. In fact, there was very little evidence at all. It was creepy, and exciting, and irresistible.

"Any idea who did it?"

"Well there were Romulans there," said Noyoto. "I don't know if they were affiliated with the Empire though."

"Why not?" said Kirk blue eyes boring into him.

Looking down Noyoto clenched his teeth and tried to forget about the bitter argument he'd just had. "Lieutenant Soto says they have to be part of the Romulan Empire because only the Empire could have that sort of fire power, but -"

"No one understands Romulans like you," said Kirk, his voice firm with conviction. "You were the guy who discovered that a Romulan visited Earth in the 20th century. You rewrote history books."

Noyoto's theory on the Romulan visitor 200 years ago had proved correct, despite T'Spock's doubts. His work with T'Spock had made his career, put any posting in Starfleet within Noyoto's grasp...

T'Spock...better not to think of her.

Glancing up, Noyoto found Kirk's eyes meeting his own. They were so bright with faith and conviction - faith and conviction in Noyoto; they practically burned.

Noyoto wasn't Jim's best friend, not by a long shot. That dubious distinction went to Bones, the grumpy older man who'd sat next to Jim on that first shuttle ride. But Jim could make you want to be his best friend. The way he took interest in your interests. The way he could believe in you. Noyoto wasn't sure if it was all genuine or if it was calculated. But it was disarming.

Slightly embarrassed, Noyoto looked down again. "Their accents were wrong...that's why the Universal Translator was thrown off. It was calibrated based on contact we've had with Romulan diplomats and military. The Romulans Starfleet deals with tend to be very formal. These guys, they were rough -"

"Any reports of a lightning storm in space before the attack?" Kirk said.

Noyoto resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Kirk thought that every unexplained incident in the galaxy somehow related to the Kelvin. They guy was obsessed. "No," he said.

"You sure there wasn't one?" Kirk asked leaning closer. "You said they were Romulan but not affiliated with the Empire..."

Noyoto took a breath. Kirk actually had a point. For once. The Romulan Empire explicitly denied on numerous occasions that they had any hand in the Kelvin incident.

"There could have been a lightning storm, but all the information we got was fragmented. The Klingons don't exactly share information freely with us."

"Any way to find out?" Kirk said.

"Not without hacking Starfleet's spy network," said Noyoto.

Kirk tilted his head.

"Oh, no," said Noyoto. "You can't -"

A familiar feminine voice rose from the aisle. "Jimmy? Jimmy you there?"

"You told your flavor of the month you'd be here?" he said trying to bite back his annoyance. It looked like he wouldn't be studying for his History exam with 'Jimmy' this evening.

With surprising vehemence Kirk whispered, "Gaila's not a flavor of the month."

Noyoto blinked. Well, that was new.

"Hey, Noyoto," said the familiar voice. Noyoto turned and waved at Gaila, but her eyes were fixed on Kirk. "Jimmy, you going to study for the Kobayashi Maru with me?"

Noyoto rolled his eyes.

"Yep," said Kirk standing up. He looked down at Noyoto. "I hear your girlfriend's back and will be overseeing the whole thing."

Narrowing his eyes, Noyoto said, "She is not my girlfriend." The words came out angrier than he meant them to.

Kirk smiled as Gaila put an arm through his.

"Sure," said Kirk. "You're just friends, going to scholarly events together, discussing the latest xenolinguistic research together -"

"Sounds like Vulcan dating to me!" said Gaily brightly, her red curls bouncing.

Noyoto did not dignify them with an answer. As far as he knew he and T'Spock weren't even friends. Not anymore.

After the bar room brawl they had spent a lot of time together. Part of it was the push to decode Kalanel's transmission, but it had been more than that. Or at least Noyoto had thought so. A new Andorian restaurant, they simply had to try it out as a matter of cultural exploration - never mind that T'Spock's near vegan dietary restrictions made her shun nearly three quarters of the menu. A sunny day? Well, they had to go for a walk.

It had been pathetic really. Absolutely pathetic.

And yet...

The thought of the threat to his career had kept him in check. Allowed him to actually get to know T'Spock in a way he wasn't normally accustomed to. Normally Noyoto liked to get to know women between the sheets.

He'd convinced himself she was perfect, smart, quietly funny, and her oddness - well, she was _quirky_. It was endearing and kept him on his toes.

There had been nothing physical between them, but Noyoto had fallen for her harder than any woman before or since.

Well, almost nothing physical. On a couple of occasions her fingers had ghosted over his knuckles when she wanted to catch his attention. That simple, chaste act always sent a current of electricity through Noyoto stronger than any sexual advance he'd ever received.

And then the day that they'd presented their findings about Kalanel, the Romulan who visited Earth. He'd still been recovering from that bout of Andorian pneumonia, and she had to know how he got that...Not that he'd cheated on her. There was nothing explicit between them. And he probably half had that fling with the Andorian girl to get T'Spock out of his mind.

He shook his head. Just put it out of your mind, Noyoto. He began straightening the PADDs on the table again.

"Come on, Jimmy," said Gaila, tugging on Kirk's arm.

"See you tomorrow when I beat the Kobayashi Maru," said Kirk.

"No one beats the Kobayashi Maru," said Noyoto, his voice laced with a bit too much venom.

"Exactly," said Kirk with a wink. "And someone needs to fix that."

**A/N:**

And that's where we blasted off in a new direction!

If you read and enjoyed, please leave a review! It's the only way fanfiction authors get paid, and it keeps us writing! (Or in this case posting).


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Startrek**

Special thanks to Beta Notes from The Classroom who read this TWICE! Check out her latest, "Crossing the Equator" in my faves.

**Chapter 5**

"We've received a distress signal from the U.S.S. Kobayashi Maru," Uhura said swivelling around in his chair to face Cadet Kirk. "Starfleet Command has ordered us to rescue them."

Spinning in his own seat, Kirk said, "Starfleet Command has ordered us to rescue them, _Captain._"

From her spot in the observation box, T'Spock watched Uhura turn back to his console, shaking his head, jaw clenched. Looking at him from above, invisible through an inch of one-way glass, it was difficult to believe she'd almost risked her entire career for him.  
>Oh, he was still handsome, but beyond that...As he moved his hands over the communication controls it was difficult to see anything special about him. Nothing that would compel her to reach out to him as she did on the day they delivered the presentation of Kalanel's transmission.<p>

He was still recovering from the bout of Andorian pneumonia then, a disease only transmissible by exchange of bodily fluids in such acts as human kissing...or other more intimate activities. Not that it was any sort of betrayal. There was nothing spoken between them. And yet...

Looking tired, his skin slightly ashen, he'd moved from the seat next to T'Spock to take his place behind the podium. As he rose, Lieutenant Commander Patrick O'Hara slapped his shoulder, and said, "Go get them." Professor Toshi Matsumura murmured, "Gambate, yo."

And then, T'Spock did something that she told herself was simply an act of cross cultural communication. In front of the audience, reporters, civilians, her parents, and all of Starfleet she did something unprecedented. She took his hand. Noyoto - they were on a first name basis by that point, stopped, looked down at her hand in his. He was well versed in Vulcan cultural taboos, and he knew that such contact could create an empathic connection. Of course she'd put up her shields - she had not invaded his privacy no matter how much she longed to. But then, tickling at the edge of those shields, hastily constructed as they were, she felt a push, as though he, a psi-null being was trying to touch her mind.

It was too seductive an invitation. She let her shields drop.

His eyes met and she saw him. Really saw him. His fatigue and apprehension, but burning through that his attraction to her, his longing, and his...adoration? No, that wasn't the right word. It was too soft, too feminine. Her mother said that when men loved they elevated the object of their desire, 'placed them on a pedestal'. T'Spock saw what she meant. She felt lifted high in that moment, all things seemed possible, and the universe wide open. She let her affection slip through to him, her confidence that he would be fine despite his exhaustion, her attraction to him...she kept only one thing back, a possessive dark emotion she'd never experienced before; it frightened her. She promised herself she'd meditate on it later.

"Thank you," he said.

She nodded. Gently releasing her hand, he walked to the podium.

That one intentional touch...had led to other things.

A sudden shut down of lights in the test chamber brought T'Spock back to the present.  
>"What is this? What's going on?" said Commander Sanchez near her ear.<p>

T'Spock blinked. The entire simulation, the simulation she'd worked on before going active in the fleet, and remotely when she served aboard the Farragut, shut down, and came back to life - with vastly different parameters.

"How the Hell did that kid beat your test?" Professor Anderwood said.

"I do not know," said T'Spock. But she estimated the odds were 99.753 to 1 that it was sabotage.

x x x x

"I believe I have a right to face my accuser directly," Kirk said.

Noyoto clenched his teeth and tilted his head. It would figure that Kirk get kicked out of Starfleet _now_. By virtue of his birthright, Kirk had managed to convince the brass to give him and Noyoto access to the equivalent of the Kelvin's "black box": logs downloaded by shuttles just before the ship was destroyed.

It was widely reported the Romulans who attacked the Kelvin had spoken in Standard - otherwise the Kelvin's crew would not have been able to understand a new species demands. But Kirk hoped there might be some snippets of Romulan heard in the background and dammit, Noyoto hoped so too.

Kirk had infected Noyoto with his suspicions. If they could compare Romulan spoken by the Kelvin's attackers and the Klingon Armada's destroyers...

A familiar figure, back impossibly straight, footsteps as precise as a dancer's made her way down the steps. Noyoto sat up straighter and watched T'Spock descend. She was a commander now, by virtue of her performance in combat. She'd seen things that he as yet could only imagine.

Had she changed? Had combat made her hard and unreachable?

Her hands were clasped behind her back, her face neutral - which said nothing. She'd looked the same at the reception after the revelation of Kalanel's transmission.  
>She had not been unreachable then. Noyoto shifted in his seat. It was in the past and done; but seeing her here, in person...<p>

The trial fell away and Noyoto was back in that evening, in the reception hall, under the eyes of the press, Starfleet, and civilians. His hand was still warm from when T'Spock had touched it just hours ago - an afterglow of empathic contact, or just his imagination, he wasn't sure.

Over the heads of some diplomats chiding him for not joining the Diplomatic Corps, Noyoto saw T'Spock. Her face was perfectly neutral, her hands were behind her back as she walked gracefully to the side of the room. She passed several people trying to get her attention without even turning her eyes to them. Noyoto's brow furrowed. That wasn't like her.

"The military is a blunt instrument," said the Telluride ambassador. "Antiquated and outdated in this civilized age. Even the Klingons are open to the possibility of a truce now."

Tearing his eyes from T'Spock, Noyoto said, "Diplomacy is the instrument, but force or threat thereof is the music."

"Ah, Frederick the Great," said an Andorian. The alien proceeded to talk about aspects of Earth philosophy which Andorians admired. Grateful not to be the center of attention, Noyoto looked quickly to where T'Spock had been - and saw her slipping out a side exit.

It was a cold night and Noyoto knew T'Spock wouldn't step out unless something was wrong. Glancing around the room, he saw Commander Sharpton engrossed in conversation with T'Spock's parents. Noyoto's own parents had been unable to come due to a family emergency. He looked towards the lonely door T'Spock had just exited. Giving what he hoped was a winning smile to the diplomats, he shook their hands and excused himself.

Outside the chill wet San Francisco night air fell upon Noyoto like he'd stepped into a cloud. In the dim misty light he saw T'Spock, clad in her black instructor's uniform, leaning on the steel railing that separated the veranda from the gardens below.  
>Going quickly to her side, he said softly, "T'Spock, what is wrong?"<p>

Taking a deep uneven breath T'Spock said, "Noyoto, would explain to me once more why humans drink until they feel sick?"

He wanted to reach out, put an arm around her narrow shoulders. But even after the events of the day, that moment when she'd put her hands in his and all walls between them had fallen away, he was still uncertain. Restraining his hands behind his back in the posture she so often adopted he said, "I think we both agreed that the short answer to that question is stupidity."

"Oh, yes," T'Spock said. "I had forgotten."

T'Spock was Vulcan and did not forget. Nor did she get drunk – at least not off of any beverage served at this function.

"What happened?" he said.

Swallowing she said, "An inebriated individual…surprised me…and grabbed my hand. Which incapacitated my shields long enough for another…enthusiastic human to shake my hand…and another. I am disoriented…and…" She sighed.

There had been a virtual gauntlet wanting to shake Noyoto's hand in the reception hall - of course, they would have wanted the same from T'Spock. Noyoto felt himself go warm with anger at himself. They'd been separated; he hadn't protected her.

Of its own volition one of Noyoto's hands went to her shoulder; the other went to her hand closest to him. Catching himself just before he touched her fingers, his hand poised above hers, her narrow shoulder grazing his chest he whispered in her ear, "May I?"

Closing her eyes with a sigh, T'Spock turned the fingers of the hand beneath his upwards. "Please."

Noyoto dropped his hand to hers; small, delicate, dry and fever warm despite the damp chill. He had a sensation of vertigo, and then like finding his feet after dropping from a great height. He felt light headed, as though he'd been drinking, and excited, aroused, happy, and very wanted. T'Spock dragged her index and middle finger beneath his own, and it was all he could do to keep his breath from hitching. Something dark, alien, and seductive danced at the corners of his vision, he felt like maybe he'd felt that feeling before, when she shook his hand...

"It is good, to have someone familiar, to center myself," T'Spock said staring down at their joined fingers.

Noyoto knew she wasn't lying, but at the same time he knew she was telling a half truth. Yes, the link between their minds was helping her find her bearings, but it was above that just an excuse to touch him, to be close to him. He knew this like he knew gravity would pull his feet to earth.

Willing her to know how much he wanted her, he traced her fingers slowly with his own. He heard T'Spock's breath catch and he pressed a gentle kiss to her temple that sent electricity down his spine.

Clasping his finger, T'Spock turned towards him. Their eyes met and he smiled. T'Spock dropped her head but squeezed his fingers tighter. Something at the very back of his mind was screaming this is not the time, but the momentum of all those months...years...without contact carried him forward as though a dam had burst. An errant strand of hair had slipped from T'Spock's neat updo. As he pushed it back the sound of a slight whoosh of air came from the reception hall.

Dropping his hand quickly he turned. In the door way stood Commander Sharpton and T'Spock's parents.

The sound of his heart suddenly pounded so loudly in his ears it was almost deafening. T'Spock's fingers were still joined with his. Slipping them to his forearm he said, "She's suffering from telepathic shock."

He had no idea if such a thing existed; he'd made it up. He kept his eyes on Sarek daring the intimidating Vulcan to challenge him.

Beside him T'Spock remained mute, but he felt her tremble slightly. Tilting his head, Sarek narrowed his eyes but remained silent. Amanda rushed forward, "Oh, this happens when Vulcans are caught off guard and touched...especially by someone who is inebriated.

"Come, T'Spock," said Amanda pulling her daughter forward, "Cadet Uhura and I will find you some place where you can sit down."

Seizing the excuse for an exit, Noyoto pulled T'Spock forward on his arm with Amanda. He stole a glance at Commander Sharpton. Her jaw was tight, and it might have been his imagination, but he though she looked profoundly sad.

"The test itself is a cheat," said Kirk. "It is designed to be unwinnable."

Noyoto snapped to the present. Kirk was hunched over the podium, glaring at T'Spock.

"Commander T'Spock, I _know_ you cannot abide by injustice."

Out of the corner of his eye, Noyoto saw a messenger come into the room and hand a PADD to Admiral Barnett.

"It is a simulation, Cadet Kirk," said T'Spock, eyes visibly narrowing. "It is neither just nor unjust. What is unjust is you sabotaging it in order to 'win'."

Admiral Barnett's voice suddenly filled the auditorium. "We've received a distress call from Vulcan. With our primary fleet engaged in the Laurentian system, I hereby order all cadets to report to hangar 1 immediately. Dismissed."

About 90 minutes later Noyoto was standing in Starfleet's shuttle hangar. "Uhura, Farragut," the Lieutenant said.

What the fuck.

X x x x

She felt her frame soften. She remembered Commander Sharpton's words, eighteen months, three weeks, two days and 45 seconds ago. _T'Spock, Do you want people to think Uhura's success isn't due to his own hard work, his own brilliance? Do you want people to think all his accomplishments are a result of favoritism?_

"It was an attempt..." A hangar worker squeezed by them. Waiting until he passed, T'Spock said softly, "To avoid the appearance of favoritism." She tried to will Noyoto to understand.

His gaze still hard, Noyoto said, "No, I am assigned to the Enterprise."

He had not tried to manipulate her with any appeal to emotion; his position was entirely logical. In trying to protect him she had been illogical.

And had she been protecting him, or protecting herself from having to serve beside him?

Touching a few buttons on her PADD she said, "Yes, I believe you are."

She spun around hearing Noyoto's cool, "Thank you," in her ears. The random factors of the universe rarely arranged in patterns that would be deemed "fair" by sentient beings. Nonetheless, T'Spock couldn't help be slightly chagrined that Noyoto seemed to be far more in control of his feelings than she was.

X x x x

In the shuttle to the Enterprise, T'Spock tried to slip into a meditative state but could not. The confrontation with Noyoto and her father's distress kept her locked in full consciousness.

Sarek and T'Spock had been distant since revelation of Kalanel's transmission. T'Spock was able to rationalize away Commander Sharpton's warnings - at first. But the evening after T'Spock's 'discussion' with the commander she went to meet her parents at their hotel. Amanda was delayed; when T'Spock first arrived it was just her and Sarek in the suite's small seating area.

The first thing Sarek said was, ""Have you considered what your actions will do to your career, T'Spock, or to his?"

Flashing hot with embarrassment, T'Spock stiffened and averted her eyes. "Our relationship is strictly professional." By human standards anyways. Touching fingers, almost completely innocuous, and considering her state of secondhand intoxication, somewhat excusable. Even the brief brush of Noyoto's lips to her temples was explainable. T'Spock had observed for at least a quarter of the population of Earth a kiss on the cheek seemed to be a standard greeting. "I was slightly incapacitated last night due to the empathic transfer from a human and -"

"And the handshake when you were in full control of your facilities?" said Sarek.

T'Spock met his gaze. "A gesture of cross cultural understanding. I thought you might approve."

Tilting his head, Sarek said, "Or were you marking your territory?"

T'Spock's s body still went cold at the memory of those words. Her father knew her better than she knew herself. Since then she'd withdrawn from him slightly, too embarrassed to be close to Sarek's mind. Trying to ameliorate things Amanda told T'Spock Sarek was only trying to protect her. It didn't make T'Spock feel any better. Her father shouldn't have to protect her. If she were a full Vulcan with Vulcan self control…

At the time T'Spock had snapped, "When will he stop trying to protect me?"

Amanda had put her hand on T'Spock's and smiled. "Never," she said.

The shuttle shook T'Spock from her ruminations. As they docked with the Enterprise T'Spock's comm chimed. Flipping it open she saw Pike's ID on the screen. Pressing a button, she said, "Yes, Captain."

As Pike ran down a list of systems that needed to be checked before the Enterprise's maiden voyage, T'Spock's mind gratefully slipped into duty mode.

x x x x

As the Enterprise eased out of the dock, Noyoto's anger at T'Spock dissipated. He was back at the communications lab in the bowels of the ship, exactly where he'd been the night after the brawl. He was on the Enterprise. He'd done it.

Noyoto was hovering over an ensign only slightly greener than himself when over the ship's intercom came the mission broadcast.

_"May I have your attention please. At 22:00 hours telemetry detected an anomaly in the neutral zone. What appeared to be a lightning storm in space..."_

At the words "lightning storm in space," every hair on Noyoto's head stood on end. He'd only been listening to Kirk harp about lightning storms for the past three years.  
>The Klingon Armada's recent destruction by Romulans not affiliated to the Empire. The Kelvin...<p>

Pushing the ensign out of the way, Noyoto hit the key code for the bridge.

"Sir?" said the ensign.

Noyoto's earpiece buzzed. _"You have the bridge. What is the problem?"_

"It's...I think this is a trap," Noyoto said feeling sweat begin to prickle at his brow. "You've got to stop the ship and warn the fleet!"

_"Is this a joke?" _buzzed the voice.

"No!" said Noyoto, "Get me Captain Pike, now!"

"We're responding to a natural disaster, not an attack -"

Noyoto hit the end call button and ran to the door of the lab, nearly bumping into Kirk and Bones as he did so. Noyoto was in too much of a panic to wonder how they'd gotten there, or why Kirk was only wearing a black tee shirt.

"It's an attack," said Noyoto.

"Yessssh!" said Kirk, his face badly swollen. Weird...but not as important as not getting blown up.

"We have to get to the bridge!" Noyoto said.

"Yesssh!" said Kirk.

"What the Hell are you two lunatics talking about?" said Bones, but Noyoto and Kirk were already pushing past him and racing down the hall.

**A/N:**

Whew! Well I hope that was fun everyone! If you read and enjoyed please leave a review!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.

Special thanks to Beta Notes from the Classroom. For Pike / Number One and Spock / Uhura check out "Crossing the Equator" in my faves.

**Chapter 6**** : Nero**

"Jim, your hands!" said Bones as the three tumbled into a turbolift.

Gasping for breath, Noyoto blinked. "What happened to you?"

"Shnondn't knew," said Kirk. "Arrgghhh!"

Bones pulled a hypo from Kirk's neck. "Don't ask," he said.

The doors to the bridge opened and Noyoto couldn't have asked if he wanted to.

Kirk ran out before him. "Sirrrrr...youshhhh goottt..."

Standing quickly from his chair, Pike said, "Kirk, how the Hell did you get on board the Enterprise?"

"Sir, you've got to stop the ship," said Noyoto.

"Captain," said Bones running over to Kirk and putting his arm on his shoulder. "This man is under the influence of a severe reaction to a vaccine."

"Bonessss," said Kirk.

"He's completely delusional," said Bones.

"No, he's not," said Noyoto. All eyes turned to him.

"Vulcan ish not exppperriencing a natural disasterrrr," said Kirk.

"It's being attacked by Romulans," said Noyoto going to Kirk's side. His was dry and metallic tasting; his heart was racing.

"Romulans?" said Pike brow furrowed, "Cadet Kirk, I think you've had enough attention for one day. McCoy, take him back to medical. Lieutenant Uhura, we'll have words later."

Noyoto felt like lead. He couldn't move. Nor did he know what to say.

"Sir," said Kirk finally regaining the capacity for coherent speech, "That same anomaly -"

"Cadet Kirk is not cleared to be aboard this vessel," said T'Spock stepping into Noyoto's line of vision. He did his best not to look at her.

Ignoring her Kirk stepped up to Pike, "Occurred on the day of my birth."

"I can remove him," said T'Spock.

"Try it!" yelled Kirk. "This cadet is trying to save the bridge."

"By requesting a full stop mid-warp during a rescue mission?" said T'Spock.

Anger rising with his fear, Noyoto stepped forward, "It's not a rescue mission; it's an attack."

Eyes narrowed at Noyoto, T'Spock said, "Based on what facts?"

Trying to look as confident as he could, Noyoto said, "The lightning storm in space also occurred before a Romulan ship attacked the U.S.S. Kelvin."

Noyoto looked to Pike. If the Captain didn't know about the Kelvin...

Kirk stepped even closer to Pike. "You know that, sir, I read your dissertation." Turning his eyes to T'Spock, Kirk said, "That ship that had formidable and advanced weaponry was never seen nor heard from again." Eyes back on Pike Kirk said, "The Kelvin attack took place on the edge of Klingon space. At 23:00 hours last night there was an attack. 47 Klingon warbirds destroyed by Romulans, Sir. And it was reported that the Romulans were in one ship. One massive ship."

"And you know of this attack how?" Pike said.

Kirk turned to Noyoto. Pike's and T'Spock's eyes followed Kirk's.

"Sir," said Noyoto, "I intercepted and translated the message myself. Kirk's report is accurate."

"We're warping into a trap sir," said Kirk. "There are Romulans waiting for us. I promise you that."

Pike looked to Kirk, then to T'Spock.

"The cadet's logic is sound," said T'Spock. "And Lieutenant Uhura is unmatched in xenolinguistics; we'd be wise to accept his conclusion."

"Scan Vulcan space, look for any transmissions in Romulan," Pike said to no one and everyone.

"Sir," said the acting communications officer, the one who'd brushed off Uhura earlier. "I don't think I can distinguish the Romulan language from Vulcan."

Looking at Noyoto Pike said, "Do you speak Romulan, Uhura?"

"All three dialects, Sir," said Noyoto jaw tightening. How long did they have now?

"Uhura, relieve the lieutenant," Pike said.

Uhura nodded, and slipped into the vacated communications chair. The seat he'd always wanted, but not under these circumstances.

"Hannity," Pike said, "hail the U.S.S. Truman."

From across the bridge a female officer said, "All the other ships are out of warp, sir, and have arrived at Vulcan, but we seem to have lost all contact."

Shit. Noyoto adjusted the dial at his station, hoping to pick ups something, anything, Romulan or otherwise. "Sir," he said. "I pick up no Romulan transmissions or transmissions of any kind."

"It's because they're being attacked," said Kirk meeting Noyoto's eyes.

Noyoto nodded.

"Shields up," said Pike going to his chair. "Red alert."

"Arrival at Vulcan in 5 seconds," said Sulu. "Four, three, two..."

The ship slammed out of warp and into a nightmare. There was Vulcan, but no fleet, only asteroids of mangled machinery - machinery that had once been ships...and crew.

"Emergency evasive," said Pike as a hurling piece of debris hit them.

"Aye, sir," said Sulu.

The next few moments were chaos.

"Damage report," said Pike.

"Deflector shields are holding," someone shouted.

"All stations," said Pike. Noyoto turned his eyes to the communications board as Pike began issuing a string of commands.

It was only when Pike got silent that Noyoto began to feel afraid. Turning in his seat he saw something that took his breath away. It was like a giant black angular squid, mutated and twisted, with sharp tentacles pulled inward. That was a ship?

"Captain, they're locking torpedoes," said T'Spock.

Pike began issuing another stream of commands. The Enterprise quaked.

"Sir, shields at 32%" said Sulu. "We cannot handle another hit like that."

"Captain," said T'Spock spinning in her chair. "The Romulan ship has lowered some sort of high energy pulse device into the Vulcan atmosphere. Its signal seems to be blocking all our transmissions and transporter abilities."

"All power to forward shields," said Pike. "Prepare to fire all weapons."

A blip sounded in Noyoto's ears. Jumping from his seat he said, "Captain, we're being hailed."

The view screen flickered and suddenly filled with the face of a Romulan. He was bald, his face blazened with intricate tattoos. Noyoto's mouth opened; mourning markings?

"Hello," said the strange Romulan in Standard - Noyoto could tell by the movement of his lips that he wasn't receiving a Universal Translator deciphered message.

"I'm Captain Christopher Pike, to whom am I speaking?"

The Romulan bowed his head and smiled in a way that made Noyoto feel vaguely sick.

"Hi, Christopher, I'm Nero."

"You've declared war against the Federation," said Pike. "Withdraw and I'll arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral location."

"I do not speak for the Empire," said Nero, head tilted. Eyes narrowing but remaining slightly unfocused, he said, "We stand apart."

The tilt of his head and the unfocused way his eyes scanned the deck - even if he hadn't just destroyed a fleet ,Noyoto would have thought Nero mad.

Furrowing his brow, Nero said, "As does your Vulcan crew member..."

Noyoto watched as T'Spock stood from her seat. "Pardon me, but I do not believe you and I are acquainted."

Nero's eyes narrowed further. "You're not Spock." Shaking, voice rising in volume, Nero said, "Where is the half breed Vulcan!"

Unflinching at the slight, T'Spock said, "I am T'Spock, daughter of Amanda Grayson and S'chn T'gai Sarek, and the only half human Vulcan in existence."

Noyoto heard something in his earpiece, just barely audible Romulan in the background. He went to his station and tried to adjust the background volume, but the conversation had ended. He'd have to go back through the logs.

He turned to the screen, hand on his earpiece, trying to see if he could see anyone in the background behind Nero. Even if he couldn't hear them, he might be able to read their lips.

In the center of the frame Nero's nose wrinkled up in disgust. "Liar!" He swallowed and shivered. His face flat, his voice icy, he said, "T'Spock, there is something I'd like you to see." Bobbing his head slowly, Nero continued. "Captain Pike, your transporter has been disabled. As you can see by the rest of your armada, you have no choice. You will man a shuttle. Come aboard the Narada. For negotiations. That is all."

Pulling himself slowly from his chair, Captain Pike stood and walked towards the screen.

"He'll kill you, you know that," said Kirk.

"I agree," said T'Spock.

So did Noyoto.

"Captain we gain nothing by diplomacy," said Kirk. "Going over to that ship is a mistake."

"I agree. You should rethink your strategy," said T'Spock.

"I understand that," said Pike. Gazing around the deck he said, "I need officers who are trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat."

Stepping forward, Noyoto said, "I have training sir."

Pike nodded at him, "You're the only person here who can speak Romulan. You'll stay put."

Raising his hand, Sulu said, "I have training sir."

"Come with me," said Pike moving to exit the bridge, T'Spock following. "Kirk, you come, too. You're not supposed to be here anyway."

Pike, Kirk, Sulu and T'Spock got onto the turbolift.

"Chekov you have the comm," said Pike.

"Aye aye, Captain," said Chekov.

As the doors whooshed closed Noyoto found himself trying to catch T'Spock's eyes - but caught Kirk's instead. Kirk gave the quirky sort of half smile he'd given Noyoto years ago in the bar.

Noyoto tried to smile back, but found all he could do was nod.

x x x x x

"T'Spock," said Pike. "I'm leaving you in command of the Enterprise."

They were not the words T"Spock wanted to hear. She did not relish the idea of command. She'd only accepted the role of interim first officer because Pike insisted there would be no one better while Number One was out of commission. And now, at this particular moment, if they managed to regain transporter capabilities, T'Spock wanted to get down to the surface of Vulcan, not be stuck in the ship.

Hardly pausing for breath, Pike continued. "Once we have transport capability and communications back up you'll contact Starfleet and let them know what the Hell's going on here. And if all else fails, fall back and rendezvous with the rest of the fleet in the Laurentian System."

Turning, he said, "Kirk, I'm promoting you to first officer,"

"What?" said Kirk voicing her own sentiments precisely.

Stepping forward, T'Spock said, "Please, Captain, I apologize, the complexities of human pranks escape me."

"It's not a prank, T'Spock." said Pike, "and I'm not the captain. You are."

Turning to Sulu and Kirk he said, "Let's go."

Kirk nodded at T'Spock before following Pike into the turbolift.

"Sir," said Kirk, "after we knock out that drill what happens to you?"

"Well, I guess you'll have to come and get me," said Pike.

The odds of successfully deactivating the drill, restoring communications and transporter capability were over 10360 to 1. Even if he didn't know these odds with T'Spock's mathematical precision, he was no fool. Pike was just being cavalier; it was a strategy he used to maintain morale.

"Careful with the ship, T'Spock. She's brand new," said Pike. Feigned cavalierness did not do anything to maintain T'Spock's morale.

Raising an eyebrow, T'Spock nodded. Restraining her fear, the fear she felt in the back of her mind from Sarek, and a blooming anger that tinged the edges of her vision green, she made her way back to the bridge.

Twenty minutes and forty seven seconds later, despite all odds, Kirk and Sulu managed to deactivate the drill, but too late. Nero and his crew had injected something into the planet's core that was creating a singularity that would consume her planet.

Her parents could not know that, but T'Spock could feel Sarek resigning himself death, and her stomach tied itself into knots.

Standing from her station, T'Spock said to Noyoto, "Alert Vulcan Command Center to signal a planet wide evacuation, all channels, all frequencies." To the helm she said, "Maintain standard orbit."

Without waiting for his response, T'Spock spun and headed towards the turbolift.

Leaving her station was strictly against regulations...but...her parents would be with the High Council. Surely saving the High Council was reason enough for a captain to abandon command?

Entering the turbolift she turned and found herself face to face with Noyoto. His presence on the bridge had been until this point a mere detail, one more unsettling occurrence that T'Spock could push aside.

Face to face, the crew too busy to pay attention, it was a different matter.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

T'Spock did not have to answer. To her surprise, she did. "To evacuate the Vulcan High Council. They are tasked with protecting our cultural history. My parents will be among them."

"Can't you beam them out?" Noyoto said.

"It is impossible. They will be with the Katric Ark. I must get them myself." She could have explained further that the Katric ark was shielded from transporter beams and photon fire - but she was running out of time.

To her relief, Noyoto did not ask any further questions. He just nodded.

"Chekov, you have the comm," she said.

"Aye, sir," Chekov replied.

She pressed the lift controls her eyes locked on Noyoto's. His face was rock hard and emotionless, and she was grateful for it. If he had reminded her of the lunacy of her plan, or even just asked her to stay she did not know if she could have gone on.

x x x x

Noyoto watched T'Spock's eyes disappear behind the turbolift doors, helpless and shut out. It wasn't the first time.

The first time they arranged to meet after the reception he suggested Stern Grove. It was quiet, secluded, a place where they could hash things out. Or do other things.

But she insisted on a crowded cafe on campus. He'd gone, thinking he could convince her to take a walk afterwards. He'd stared at her blankly across the table as she declared, "I have accepted a position aboard the Farragut with Captain Pike, my shuttle leaves in an hour." He'd wondered then if he'd ever see her again.

He wondered that now.

**A/N:**

So _just_ _posting_ takes a lot more time than I remember. Sorry I put this chapter off for so long - it's more fun to write and post than just post.

If you read and enjoyed please leave a review – it's the only way fanfiction authors get paid, and will, encourage me to keep posting.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.**

Special thanks to beta Notes from The Classroom. Check out her latest "Crossing the Equator" in my faves.

**Chapter 7**

As she walked to the transporter room T'Spock silently willed Sarek to feel her in his mind, willed him to urge the elders out of the Katric Ark's resting place.

"Clear the pad," T'Spock said stepping up to the transporter, the prone bodies of Kirk and Sulu at her feet. "I'm beaming down to the surface."

"The surface of what?" she heard Kirk ask as though from a great distance.

_Father,_ she willed, _get mother, I'm coming._

"What, you're going down there?" yelled Kirk. "What, are you nuts? T'Spock, you can't do that!"

She couldn't feel if Sarek comprehended her distant plea; was he too deep in meditation to hear - or was she too panicked?

Sinking into a low crouch T'Spock said, "Energize."

She felt the familiar buzz of the transporter beam and her next breath was in the atmosphere of her homeworld, but it had the acrid unfamiliar smell of smoke in it. The roar of rocks crumbling assaulted her ears. Quickly surveying the world literally disintegrating around her she sprung from her crouched position and raced towards the Katric Ark. She was as fast as any human man, but not as fast as a Vulcan man. She tried not to think of the valuable seconds the slower pace of her gender cost her.

_Father, get mother, please leave..._

And then in the distance, on the cliff outside the Katric Ark's entrance she saw them: the council members led by her father, her mother tucked protectively under one of his arms. She was too breathless to even feel relief.

"Chekov," she panted over her comm, "beam us up."

"Who, Keptin, I detect only you?"

Her family was only 575 meters away.

"The disturbance in the core..." she gasped.

"It could be interfering with ze sensors," said Chekov.

"Affirmative. I will get closer," said T'Spock, now only 50 meters away.

"Yez, the signal from your communicator should amplify their energy signaturez," said Chekov.

T'Spock did not bother to respond. As she ran the last few meters, her mother rushed from her father's arms to greet her. "T'Spock!"

Drawing to a halt and not bothering to respond, T'Spock said, "Chekov, can you read our signals now? There are seven hominids, including myself."

"Affirmative, Keptin. Preparing to energize."

T'Spock's body slumped, she gasped for breath, and the earth seemed to sink a bit beneath her feet. Amanda's arms wrapped around her.

"Amanda, T'Spock," said Sarek, suddenly on the far side of them, pushing them both. "Away from the edge."

T'Spock tried to get her bearings and felt the earth sink a little more even as her father pushed her and Amanda toward the cliff walls.

Her eyes met Sarek's. She felt the faint buzz of the transporter and blinked. The world shook, she opened her eyes, and Sarek wasn't there.

"Keptin, please do not move," said Chekov. "The interference is very strong -"

"Sarek!" screamed Amanda.

Her father was dangling a meter from T'Spock's feet above nothingness.

Diving to the ground, T'Spock grabbed her father's hand as the ledge beneath them slumped downward. Sarek's weight pulled T'Spock forward. She felt Amanda, on her back, trying to hold her up.

"Let go!" said her father, his voice fierce, his hand going limp in hers.

"No!" said T'Spock, even as his weight dragged her and her mother down.

Meeting her eyes, Sarek clasped her hand tightly, and for a moment T'Spock thought he was accepting her refusal. And then her skin began to burn where her father's fingers touched hers, and her mind began to fill.

She looked at his familiar deep black eyes...and saw they were empty. She gasped.

The hand in T'Spock's went limp again and without T'Spock's volition, her own hands let go.

Into the nothingness she screamed.

"Father!" The sound came out as she lay stomach down on the transporter pad, her mother clasping her arms around her waist, sobbing.

x x x x x

Sarek's katra sent T'Spock's mind into turmoil. On the one hand it dulled the grief she felt - at least for him. To her mind a great portion of him was still alive, but that was also a problem. She was herself, and she was not. There were her thoughts and there were Sarek's. This she could handle. Sarek's rational mind was even better organized than her own. She could compartmentalize his memories and last mechanizations of his mind, store them away to explore later. But their combined emotions...

Sarek's and T'Spock's grief for the loss of their home world was amplified by the grief of 6 billion souls. The death of so many telepathic beings at once was too much to block out completely. T'Spock was devastated, angry, beyond caring - and to her surprise Sarek had felt everything she did at the end of his life...but more so.

And then there was the bond with her mother that his consciousness was accustomed to. That link was severed with his life. Amanda was in sick bay. T'Spock was on the bridge. Her mother was so close, but now she felt an eternity apart.

T'Spock was adrift, and unstable, but there was nothing she could do but go on. What were her options, hand over control of the ship and the lives of her crew to a barely tested, unstable, cadet? T'Spock was convinced that the stress of Pike's heroic sacrifice was responsible for Kirk's assignment as first officer. She should have protested more loudly at the time, but it was done.

Now the ship was hers, and the crew, and she was barely more fit to command it.

"Acting captain's log Stardate 2258.4.2," said T'Spock as she sat in the command chair. "We have had no word from Captain Pike, I have therefore classified him a hostage of the war criminal known as Nero. Nero who has destroyed my home planet and most of its 6 billion inhabitants.

"While the essence of our culture has been saved in the elders who now reside upon this ship, I estimate that no more than 10,000 of Vulcans inhabitants have survived."

She tilted her head. She wanted to pursue Nero, drive the Enterprise through the monstrosity of a vessel he inhabited. But what good would that do? One more suicide? They were the only ones who had survived the first onslaught. Logically, they should regroup with the fleet and share their data. With careful analysis, perhaps a weakness could be found...

Or perhaps not.

If she were Romulan, and not devoted to logic she would attack without caring if it were suicidal. She envied her enemy for more than just his superior fire power.

_Determine the Narada's destination based on its last known trajectory._ The command was on her lips, but she didn't say it out loud.

Instead, standing quickly from her chair she made her way to the turbolift.

The door was just sliding closed when Noyoto slipped in front of her. The doors whooshed behind his heels and they were alone.

T'Spock looked at Noyoto but could not speak. His face was blank, unreadable.

The turbolift began to move. Reaching out a hand, Noyoto stopped it.

T'Spock catalogued this action; she could not bring herself to stop him, or even ask why he'd done it. It was as though her body and mind were disengaged.

"I'm sorry," Noyoto said. "I'm sorry."

The logical response was "It's not your fault". But T'Spock could not bring herself to say it. And there was something else, something she did not expect. Within her mind Sarek's mind began to assert itself.

Noyoto was saying sorry because to some extent he felt her pain on a physical level. T'Spock suddenly knew this like she knew the next breath she took would fill her lungs.

Noyoto's hands went to her face. Through the light empathic connection T'Spock could feel her hypothesis verified.

"I'm so sorry," Noyoto said. He brushed his lips to T'Spock's forehead and T'Spock's eyes closed. There was no trace of the anger she knew he'd felt earlier when he discovered she'd assigned him to the Farragut.

She remembered the day Sarek confronted her after the discovery of Kalanel's transmission.

"If the relationship is mutually beneficial to you both," Sarek said, "It will wait until Mr. Uhura graduates."

T'Spock had not believed her father. Noyoto had engaged in casual kissing - or more, with an Andorian just a few weeks before that discussion. It was true, there had been no spoken commitment between her and Noyoto, but it had still stung. Proven to her how quickly she had to move...and how quickly his affections could vanish.

But now with his hands on her face she could feel his feelings for her had not changed, after all the time apart, and after she'd behaved so illogically. Another part of her mind, the part that was Sarek, noted that in her absence he may have been intimate with others - but that did not change what Noyoto was feeling here and now.

Humans didn't feel as deeply as Vulcans. But...

She leaned into Noyoto, breathed him in. His hands slid down away from her face, but T'Spock stopped him, wanting to keep the empathic connection between them.

His emotions were not as intense as hers. There was no burning darkness that T'Spock felt uncoiling in her, but there was affection, and desire, and protectiveness, and the lightness of his feelings lifted her.

"What do you need? Tell me. Tell me." Noyoto said his lips touching her forehead again, then one cheek, and the other.

It was a question of emotional needs, but snapped T'Spock's rational mind back to her obligations. She wanted to stay alone with him in this fragile, protected moment, away from responsibilities, in this temporary harbour from grief.

Swallowing she pressed the turbolift resume button. She did not have the luxury of retreat.

"I need," she said. "I need everyone to continue to performing admirably."

Noyoto pulled his face away from hers. He nodded.

The turbolift came to a halt.

She wanted to acknowledge what Noyoto had done. What he was. There were no words. She pressed her lips to Noyoto's on instinct that was definitely not Vulcan - her memories...no, Sarek's memories informed her of this.

In the few seconds before the turbolift doors opened Noyoto's lips responded. His coolness doused the heat of her anger and confusion, and the way his lips moved so naturally against hers, the way she knew how to respond even though she'd never done this before - it was some certainty in the heart of an uncertain universe.

Hearing the soft click of the doors they both pulled back.

T'Spock did not meet his eyes or turn back as she exited the turbolift and walked down the hall, if she looked back she might not have been able to go on.

**A/N:**

Well, a couple little twists there I guess - err, and one big huge one. If you read and enjoyed please leave a review. It helps keep me posting!


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.**

**Special thanks to beta Notes from the Classroom for reading this TWICE. Check out her latest "Crossing the Equator" in my faves for Spock/Nyota goodness and Pike and Number One.**

**Chapter 8**

As the turbolift doors opened on the bridge, Noyoto thought the sight of T'Spock's delicate frame walking down the hall, alone, would stay burned in his retinas forever. Those narrow shoulders bore the weight of a world. His fingers felt numb where he'd touched her forehead. His lips felt very warm.

She was right. They had to continue performing admirably.

Returning to his station, he hastily retrieved the logs from the brief conversation with Nero.

"Narada's trajectory?" It was T'Spock's voice. Noyoto was so engrossed in his task he had not heard her come onto the bridge. Spinning in his seat, Noyoto nodded at her and Kirk at her side. "Sir," Noyoto said, "There is something you need to hear."

"Chekov, compute the Narada's trajectory," said T'Spock.

"Aye," said Chekov.

"What is it you wish me to hear, Lieutenant?" said T'Spock, approaching his station.

"Sir," said Chekov, "their destination is Earth."

Noyoto went cold at his words. What he had to say could wait.

From the Captain's chair, Kirk said, "Earth may be his next stop, but we have to assume every Federation planet is a target."

Pacing by, T'Spock said, "Out of the chair," completely without inflection. Noyoto wasn't sure he could have been so calm. He shot Kirk a disapproving look on her behalf, but Kirk didn't even notice.

"If the Federation is ze target," said Chekov, "why didn't they destroy us?"

"Why would they?" said Sulu. "Why waste a weapon? We obviously weren't a threat."

"That is not is not it," said T'Spock. "He said he wanted me to see something; the destruction of my home planet."

"No," said Noyoto standing from his station. "Not you. He wanted _Spock_to see it...not you. And some of his crew are not happy that S'chn T'gai Spock isn't here."

"What?" said T'Spock and Kirk in one breath, turning to look at him.

All eyes on him, jaw tight, Noyoto said, "I overheard a discussion in Romulan in the background when Nero was talking to us.

"I retrieved the logs and amplified the background noise. It wasn't a discussion, it was an argument." Turning quickly back to his station, Noyoto said, "The Universal Translator turns their Romulan to gibberish, but I was able to translate it myself. I added audio."

"Put it on speaker," said T'Spock.

"Aye, sir."

Over the intercom came the Standard translations Noyoto had created using the original voice signatures. _"There is no Spock!"_

_"Shut up!" _Hissed another voice.

_"We were lied to! Ayel has deceived you, Nero! There is no Spock in this timeline! The deaths of billions is upon our souls -"_

There was a strangling, gurgling noise that needed no translation.

_"Does anyone else have anything to add?"_

Turning back around, Noyoto said, "That's the end of it." He met T'Spock's eyes and then Kirk's. "I think we've encountered a ship from an alternate reality." He had discussed the possibility of such a thing numerous times before with T'Spock and Kirk – separately, of course.

"That would explain their technological advantage," said T'Spock gazing out the view screen.

"Dammit, how is that even possible?" said Bones.

"They have technology necessary to create a black hole," said T'Spock. "Theoretically, such technology could be used to travel through time, or to cross from one reality to another."

"What would an angry, alternate reality Romulan want with Captain Pike?" said Kirk.

"As Captain he does know details of Starfleet defenses," said Sulu.

"What we need to do," said Kirk, "Is catch up to that ship. Disable it, take over, and get Pike back."

Nodding, Noyoto said, "From the sounds of it, some of his own crew might join us."

"Nero's ship would have to drop out of warp for us to overtake it," said Chekov.

"We are technologically outmatched in every way," said T'Spock. "A rescue attempt would be suicidal, and therefore illogical."

Her words hit Noyoto like a cold wave. If Kirk was right, and Nero would attack other Federation planets maybe they should regroup with the fleet...perhaps with the knowledge they had they could find a weakness in the Narada...

Closing his eyes, hands gesturing in the air, Kirk said. "But what about assigning engineering crews to boost our warp yield."

"The engineering crew is busy repairing radiation leaks on the lower decks," said T'Spock.

"Okay," said Kirk.

"...and damage to communications," said T'Spock.

"Alright, alright," said Kirk striding down the bridge to T'Spock.

"...without which we cannot contact Starfleet," said T'Spock. "We must gather with the rest of Starfleet to balance the terms of the next engagement."

"There won't be a next engagement!" Kirk shouted. "By the time we gather it will be too late."

"Mr. Sulu," said T'Spock going to the Captain's chair, "Plot a course to the Laurentian System warp factor 3."

"Aye, Sir," said Sulu.

"T'Spock," said Kirk striding over to the chair, "Don't do that. Running back to the fleet for a confab is a massive waste of time."

"It was Captain Pike's last order that we rendezvous with the rest of the fleet in the Laurentian System," said T'Spock.

"He also ordered us to go back and get him," said Kirk. "T'Spock, you are captain now. You have to make -"

"I am aware of my responsibilities," said T'Spock.

"Every second we waste, Nero is getting closer to his next target!" said Kirk.

T'Spock said evenly, "That is correct and why I am instructing you to accept the fact that I alone -"

"I will not allow us to go backwards," shouted Kirk shouted, his face turning red, the veins in his neck visibly popping.

Noyoto had seen Kirk get angry in debates in class, especially when he felt some principle was being violated. He'd never seen him like this, though, but the stakes had never been this high.

Feeling a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, he moved from his station towards T'Spock and Kirk. "Kirk," he said in his most soothing tones.

Evidently feeling the same, Bones stepped forward, too. "Jim," said the doctor.

They might have been talking to a wall.

"Confront the problem!" shouted Jim, oblivious to both of them.

T'Spock stood from her chair.

Taking a step closer, Jim shouted, "Hunt Nero down!"

Kirk was less than a dozen centimeters from T'Spock. Far too close for human comfort, definitely for Vulcan comfort. Noyoto felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. He fought the urge to go forward and yank Kirk away from T'Spock.

"Mr. Kirk," said T'Spock, "Although I welcome debate on the bridge within reason, if I perceive any threat to my person I will be forced to call security."

Kirk did not move. "The lives of an entire planet are depending on us!"

"Stand down, Mr. Kirk," said T'Spock softly, her face expressionless. Noyoto tilted his head. Her hands weren't even behind her back, as they were often when she was agitated. He had seen her emotions in the turbolift...but now...even for T'Spock she seemed remarkably calm, remarkably in control.

"There is always a way, T'Spock!" said Kirk not budging an inch. Noyoto wondered if Kirk had even heard her.

Moving his hands furiously in the air, Kirk began to shout. "If we -"

"Security, escort Mr. Kirk from the bridge," said T'Spock.

Kirk's hands dropped, but the look he was giving T'Spock was pure murder. Noyoto's fist clenched at his side. It almost looked to him like Kirk would hit her, of course Kirk wouldn't - would he?

Two security officers went to either side of the acting first officer. Noyoto let out a breath. Maybe it was best they get him out of here. Kirk was going off half cocked. If he cooled down maybe he could put his mind towards something useful.

As the two security officers led him down the steps of the bridge, Kirk began to struggle. Pulling himself out of their grasp, he elbowed one and decked the other.

"Enough, Jim!" shouted Bones.

Not listening, Kirk tried to wrestle a phaser out of one of the guard's hands.

Walking calmly forward, T'Spock put a hand upon Kirk's neck. Kirk slumped to the floor like a rag doll.

"Get him off this ship," said T'Spock.

x x x x

Jim stared out across the frozen expanse of ice that was Delta Vega. His head hurt, maybe from the nerve pinch he was fairly sure he'd received from T'Spock.

He was furious at her for letting Nero get away. But more than her, he was furious at himself. He prided himself in being able to get his way with depth of his intellect, and the fierceness of his convictions. Failing those, then by charm.

He'd lost his cool when Earth needed him most.

He actually felt like he might cry. He'd fucked up. And Earth might pay for it.

Putting his hands on his hips, took a deep breath and said aloud to himself and the universe at large, "I do not believe in no-win scenarios."

An hour later, in the depths of the blizzard, when a giant abominable snowman creature with really big claws and even bigger teeth was chasing him through the drifts, Jim _still_didn't believe in no win scenarios. A few minutes after that, when the abominable snow creature got tossed aside by a giant pink snow spider that obviously coveted Jim for it's lunch, he still hadn't lost faith...much.

When said spider chased Jim into an ice cave, and Jim was lying on the floor of the cave, being reeled in by its tongue, he began to think he _might_have to reevaluate his philosophy. Not that he didn't kick and squirm and vow to give that spider hell all the way down.

And then out of nowhere came this old guy swinging a torch - the point of his ears obvious even from Jim's behind the head view. Giant pink spider creature retreated in terror.

Jim sat gasping at his own dumb luck.

Then old guy turned around and said, "James ," and Jim began to wonder if maybe he was being eaten by the spider creature and his brain was in the throes of the rush of endorphins that burst just before a violent death. He was hallucinating; that had to be it.  
>"Excuse me?" he said.<p>

"How did you find me?" said the old guy.

Did hallucinations usually last this long?

"Oooooh...uh..." said Jim. Standing up, not letting his eyes drop from the stranger - who could very well be crazy, even if he wasn't a figment of his imagination, Jim said, "How did you know my name?"

Nodding sagely, the old Vulcan guy said, "I am and forever shall be your friend."

"Wuh?" said Jim laughing. The cold on his face, the prickle of sweat on his skin made him feel like this wasn't a dream, and the stress of almost being eaten twice and then being saved by a somewhat senile old Vulcan guy was catching up with his tongue.

Taking a breath he smiled as politely as he could and said, "Uh, look, I...I...don't know you."

"I am Spock," said the Vulcan.

Jim's smile shrank. Could this be the guy Noyoto was talking about? That would have to be some really _dumb_luck. Jim wasn't that dumb. "Bullshit," he said.

The old-guy-possibly-a-hallucination nodded. "Come, we need to get away from the entrance to the cave."

Jim wasn't going to argue with that. In near silence they made their way back into the cavern's depths; a fire was already burning there. Motioning for Jim to sit down, the Vulcan calling himself Spock said, "It is remarkably pleasing to see you again, old friend, especially after the events of today."

"Ah...sir," said Jim, "I appreciate what you did for me today. But I really don't know you, the only Spock I know is T'Spock."

Standing up, mouth agape, Spock said, "T'Spock?"

"Yeah...and you're not her...I mean...you're a dude…"

Spock tilted his head. "Pardon?"

But Jim's mouth was set to play, not reverse, "And you're old, and T'Spock and I, we're not friends at all, she _hates _me. She marooned me here for mutiny."

"A she?" said old Vulcan guy blinking. "Women are allowed to be captains already?*"

Jim's mouth dropped. What a warped universe this guy must come from. "Um, yeah. She's the captain. Pike was taken hostage." He began to pace around the fire. He had to get out of here...

"By Nero," said old guy.

Stopping in his tracks, Jim said, "What do you know about him?"

"He is a particularly troubled Romulan," said the old guy.

Jim eyes narrowed incredulously. That was one way of putting it.

Coming towards him, old guy - Spock said, "Allow me." Putting his hand up to Kirk's face he said, "It will be easier."

Ducking instinctively Jim said, "Whoa, what?"

Without dropping his hand, old guy said, "Our minds, one and together."

Jim froze. The Vulcan brought the paper thin skin of his fingertips, aged, dry, and fever hot, to Jim's face. "129 years in the future," said Spock, "A star will explode and threaten to destroy the galaxy.  
>And suddenly Jim saw the stars. And many other things.<p>

x x x x

Gasping, Jim came to, staring at Spock's eyes. They were so familiar. And so not.

"Forgive me," said Spock. "Emotional transference is an effect of the meld."

Stumbling away Jim said, "So you do feel." Spock felt. A lot. Spock felt his own failure. He felt despair. And he felt...for Jim. It was too much.

"Yes."

"Going back in time...coming from your universe to ours...you altered all our lives." Jim's father had been one of the first casualties.

"Jim, we must go," said Spock. "There is a Starfleet outpost not far from here."

"Wait," said Jim. How different was this Vulcan's universe from his? "Where you came from, did I know my father?"

"Yes," said the old Vulcan. "You often spoke of him as your inspiration for joining Starfleet. He proudly lived to see you become captain of the Enterprise."

"Captain?" said Jim.

"A ship we must return you to as soon as possible," said the Vulcan heading towards the cave entrance.

Kirk nodded. Captain. But not in this universe.

X x x x

"You wanted to see me," said McCoy to T'Spock. His eyebrows were drawn together. A thousand occasions when Amanda's face had been drawn together in the same way came to T'Spock. And the way his started with heavy inflection on the first syllables... The emotions Sarek had felt behind these expressions of emotional state came, too. It was just an intellectual observation, it was a feeling...as humans might say, it was "in her gut".

"Yes, Doctor," said T'Spock. Standing from her chair, T'Spock said, "I am aware that James T. Kirk is a friend of yours. I recognize that supporting me as you did must have been difficult."

"Is that a thank you?"

T'Spock stopped and turned. She had slightly more respect for Bones than she did for Kirk. He had taken initiative in the sick bay without instruction. But he was deliberately confrontational. She wanted to snap at him...

...but over 20 years of diplomatic experience came back to her...or informed her...she wasn't sure which.

"Yes," she said simply.

Bones' mouth opened and then closed. Swallowing, he said, "Permission to speak freely, Sir."

"Proceed," said T'Spock.

"Are you sure?" said the doctor.

"Quite," said T'Spock, annoyed that he felt the need to second guess her.

Taking a deep breath, McCoy opened his mouth and then closed it again.

T'Spock tilted her head and tried to remain patient.

"Are you?" Straightening, he seemed to regain himself. "Was sending Kirk away the logical choice...probably...but...the right one? You know back home we have a saying; if you're going to ride in the Kentucky derby, you don't leave your prize stallion in the stable."

T'Spock blinked. Irritated, she resisted the urge to twist the metaphor around, mention that stallions needed to be broken. Or that bit of her that held on to Sarek resisted the urge. She wasn't sure. Now was not the time for verbal jousting.

"Cadet Kirk is not a horse. He possess sentience and self awareness," she said. "He attempted mutiny. Although I welcome the frank debate of ideas, in present circumstances we cannot afford to physical confrontation between ourselves."

Taking a deep breath McCoy said, "Yeah...right."

Through the doors of the bridge, Amanda came. T'Spock was in awe of her now, and not just due to memories from Sarek. She would have thought Amanda too mentally frail, too human, to hold up so well in this crisis. But it was not that way at all. Amanda had been very strong. So strong in fact, that she had been assisting with the Vulcan refugees, both the ones from the council and the others the Enterprise had picked up as it left the Vulcan system. Many had slipped into telepathic shock.

"Excuse me, Doctor," said T'Spock, anxious to get an update of the Vulcan survivors - and also just to talk with her mother. To be in her sphere, and some semblance of normality, even if it was more Sarek's normalacy than her own.

McCoy nodded, but T'Spock heard him mutter, "Green blooded icicle," under his breath.

x x x x

"You realize how unacceptable this is?" said the woman in the outpost who'd just been snoring with her feet up in the chair. She had a definite Scottish accent, which coupled with quirky features might have been cute...but the snoring, and the general disregard she seemed to have towards her deportment, unkempt clothes, stringy hair peeking out from under a non-regulation knit hat, really took away from her appeal. Not that she had many people to impress here, thought Jim.

"I hesitate to ask," said the Vulcan, "but your accent sounds familiar. Who might you be?"

Sitting up straighter, the woman said, "It's Maggie Scott, like you didnna know!"

**A/N:**

* In the TOS universe women weren't allowed to be captains (See "Turnabout Intruder"). That was fixed later (Saavik was training for command), but I chose to play it off as though that happened later in Spock's career - err...just so we can remember that although TOS was ground breaking it was still a product of it's time.

No juicy T'Spock Noyoto moments in that chapter. Sorry everyone. But you did get Maggie! I'm picturing Tina Fey.

Still enjoyable I hope – if it was, please leave a review! They help keep me posting.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.**

Special thanks to beta Notes from the Classroom.

**Chapter 9**

Leaning back dangerously in her chair, Maggie said, "Now look, I've been here six months, livin' off protein nibs -" she flicked a packet of rations in Jim and Spock's direction and pellets went everywhere. "And I know what is going on here. Punishment, isn't it? For something that was clearly an accident."

"Maggie Scott," said Spock. "Fascinating."

"You know her?" said Jim.

"Not precisely," said the Vulcan.

"So did you bring the food, real food?" said Maggie. "I put in my procurement order months ago, and wrote in a request for chocolate, which isn't a standard item but should be. But at this point any thin' that's not dehydrated is an improvement."

"Ms. Scott," said Spock. "Have you done any research into the possibility of trans-warp beaming?"

Maggie blinked. "That's what put me here!" She stood up and came closer, her hands, clad in cut off gloves began moving animatedly in the air. "You know...it's not so much that are ships move...it's that space moves!" Her eyes got very wide for a second, and then she paced away. "Or that's what I postulated. But Admiral Archer's beagle..."

Remembering warm afternoons and discussions of battle strategy punctuated by a friendly wet nose, Jim said, "Rufus? I know that dog, what happened to him?"

Coughing Maggie said, "Errrr...I'll tell you when he reappears."

Jim did his best to not swallow.

Not seeming to notice, Maggie continued. " I'm still not certain Olson didnna have somethin' to do with Rufus' disappearance. He never did like me – Olson, I mean, I got along fine with Rufus. His sister neither - Olson's sister, I mean, she didnna like me much, always got all upset when I was discussin' relative physics with Chekov. She was a real odd one...

"...I do feel really guilty about it," she said turning to Jim and Spock. "Rufus, I mean, not the Olson clan's oddness."

"Um, yeah," said Jim, still thinking about Rufus, and not sure Maggie was one to speak of oddness. Olson, Olson, where had he heard that name before? Was that the guy who died on Nero's rig?

"What if I told you your transwarp theory is correct," said Spock. "That it is indeed possible to beam aboard a ship traveling at warp speed?"

"I'd tell you I know!" said Maggie with gusto. Slumping back down in her chair she said, "But you'd have to convince the brass of that."

"Fascinating," said Spock.

"I don't find bureaucratic politics all that fascinating myself," said Maggie, elbows on her knees, face sinking into her hands. Staring down at the ground she said, "You piss off one Admiral..." She sighed.

"Perhaps a real world demonstration is in order," said Spock. "Do you have a transporter?"

"What...yes, well...not strictly speaking, but I did fix the broken, non-Starfleet issued transporter on the shuttle grounded here. What are you plannin' on transportin' and where?"

"I am planning to transport the two of you aboard the Enterprise," said Spock.

"Us?" said Jim and Maggie in unison.

"Yes. Jim needs to regain his rightful place as Captain; you Ms. Scott, need to be Engineer of the Enterprise."

"Well, yeah," said Maggie scratching behind an ear, "That is obvious."

Brow furrowing Jim said, "How exactly am I supposed to become Captain?"

"Starfleet protocol 719," said Spock. Before Jim had a chance to respond, the elder Vulcan looked at Maggie. "Is that the shuttle over there?"

"Yeah," said Maggie standing from her chair.

"I'm supposed to emotionally compromise her?" said Jim to Spock's back as they made their way through the bits of machinery lying about the room that may have been a hangar at one point.

Stopping, Spock turned around. "Jim," he said, "She just watched the destruction of her planet. Believe me, she is emotionally compromised."

Remembering T'Spock's cold unflinching stare as they argued, Jim took a deep breath. He wasn't so sure.

Spock turned around and began walking towards the shuttle again. "Ms. Scott," he said, "if I give you the estimated coordinates, can you input them into your equation?"

"Sure!" she said happily skipping to keep up with Spock. "I wonder if they'll have chocolate?"

A few minutes later, Spock and Maggie were huddled over a computer monitor.

"There ya' go," said Maggie. "This will put us on the Enterprise."

"If you would not mind," said Spock, hands going to the controls.

"I thought you said you believed in my theory!" said Maggie, pulling her hat from her head and looking indignant.

"I do," said Spock. "But your coordinates need a bit of modification."

Narrowing her eyes, Maggie moved to the side, "All right, show me."

Spock pressed a few buttons. Maggie's posture eased. "Oh, would you look at that, I forgot to carry the one!" Smiling at Jim, she said, "Not to worry though, we would have decompressed before we'd even known what happened to us."

Swallowing, Jim looked at Spock. "You are coming with us, aren't you?"

Eyeing Maggie, now looking down at the monitor and scratching her ear again, Spock said, "I think that would be best."

A few minutes later Jim materialized in engineering just behind Spock. Grinning, he said, "It worked."

Looking side to side, Spock said, "The layout is a little different than my Enterprise."

"Hey," said Jim, "Where's Maggie?"

"I am trying to ascertain that," said Spock.

A metallic clinking sounded behind Jim.

Spinning he found himself facing a large water intake tube. Heart sinking, Jim yelled, "Maggie? Maggie, can you hear me?"

The tank clinked from the inside...and then the clinking sank.

"This is problematic," said Spock with what was apparently a habit for understatement. The elder Vulcan looked to the side.

Following his gaze, Jim saw Maggie exhaling bubbles in a length of clear horizontal piping. And then her body was sucked down the pipe.

Peeling off the parka he'd donned on Delta Vega, Jim chased after her. "Hold on!" he yelled uselessly. There was nothing in the tube to hold on to.

He didn't think the situation could get any worse, but then she was sucked vertically towards a water turbine.

Racing towards the nearest terminal, he activated a turbine release valve. Right before the turbine blades, a hatch opened in the piping. At least half a ton of water and a furiously coughing Maggie came crashing down from the ceiling.

Kneeling down beside her Jim said, "Are you alright?"

Maggie coughed up a bit of water and began peeling off her heavy parka.

"My head is buzzin' and I'm soaked, but otherwise I'm fine," she said, dumping the parka to the side.

Jim blinked. Actually, with less clothes and after a bath...

"Come, we must go," said Spock. And damn if the Vulcan didn't know him well.

x x x x

Noyoto was surveying engineering's diagnostics of the subspace array and T'Spock was talking to Amanda when Chekov said, "Captain, there was an unauthorized access to a water turbine control board."

Looking up, Noyoto saw T'Spock walking to Chekov's station.

Noyoto looked over to Amanda. She smiled at him. A sad sort of smile, but hopeful, too. Oddly, Noyoto found himself able to smile back.

"Bring up the video," said T'Spock.

Noyoto and Amanda turned to the screen...and saw Kirk and two other people in engineering.

Leaning forward and hitting the intercom, T'Spock said, "Security to engineering deck, we have intruders in water turbine section 3. Set phasers to stun."

Noyoto tilted his head. T'Spock still seemed unnaturally calm. Tranquil even. Her voice was completely neutral, almost disinterested, and he hadn't seen her do so much as raise an eyebrow.

x x x x

"Halt," the red shirt yelled. Jim spun to run the other way and nearly collided with Spock and Maggie.

Looking past them he saw a familiar large figure with the business end of a phaser pointed in his direction.

"Uh...Hi, Cupcake," said Jim.

The large man sighed, "Ah, Kirk, why'd you have to go and cause trouble. Now I gotta haul you up to the bridge. There are worse places than Delta Vega, you know."

"You're in luck," said Maggie, "The bridge is just the place we wanna be!"

Cupcake's eyes went past Jim, "Uh, hello, Ma'am. Um...really?" He looked back to Jim for the briefest of moments.

"Really, Cupcake," said Jim.

Eyes glued to Maggie, Cupcake sputtered. "Um...well...after you, Ma'am."

Maggie walked past Jim, hands in the air, and smiled at Cupcake.

Jim tried to move, but Cupcake's forearm shot up to block his way. Motioning to Spock and the other security officers to follow Maggie, he leaned down and whispered to Jim, "Are you and her?"

"What?" said Jim.

Face and bald head going completely red, Cupcake said again, "Are you and her..."

"Oh!" said Jim shaking his head. "No...no..." Even if when she was wet she actually really was kind of cute.

"Do you think you can put in a good word for me?" asked Cupcake.

"Sure, if you can get me to the bridge." said Jim watching Spock and Maggie disappear around the corner.

"Oh, yeah! Right, of course, of course!" said Cupcake.

x x x x

"Who are you?" said T'Spock, eyeing the drenched woman and older male Vulcan who came through the turbolift doors with Kirk and security.

The Vulcan was silent. The woman said, "I'm..."

"They're with me," said Kirk.

Kirk was already getting in the way of her orders. One part of her mind wanted to lash out at him - for his earlier attempt at mutiny...but another part of her mind grasped the potential of what his presence here represented.

"We are travelling at warp speed," said T'Spock walking slowly forward, "How did you manage to beam aboard this ship?"

The older Vulcan was silent.

"You're the genius, you figure it out," said Kirk.

"As acting Captain of this vessel, I order you to answer the question," said T'Spock. She did not have time for these games.

"Well, I'm not telling. Acting captain."

T'Spock stood immobilized. Kirk's windpipe looked so soft and vulnerable. They were equally matched physically. But if she reached his mind, she could kill him telepathically...and very slowly...her vision went green.

A memory came back to her, not hers, Sarek's. She remembered a time he'd caught a human male trying to attack her mother. Sarek had the opportunity to crush the man's windpipe, or kill him telepathically...and had stewed over the idea exactly as she did now.

Her urge to kill, or more to the point...the strength of that urge, was Vulcan.

Her control, of all things, her expressions - the way she nearly slipped into an illicit relationship with Noyoto...these were human. The way she could grasp the potential for transwarp beaming and how that could be utilized to attack Nero, and more than that, how she could conceive so easily of going against orders to do that - that was human too.

She looked down. It was strange to see herself from the outside and the inside at once. It was stranger still to see how much her father admired her for it. She suddenly felt more powerful, more comfortable in her own skin than she ever had in her entire life.

"What, now that doesn't bother you?" said Kirk.

She looked up to see him smiling at her.

"Can I have a towel?" said the woman.

Ignoring the woman, T'Spock said, "Of course it bothers me. I have only one home world left, that is Earth, and if it is still your desire to hunt Nero down and defeat him, you will desist this game immediately."

She blinked. "This is a game, is it not?"

Kirk's smile dropped. He swallowed. "Are you serious?" He said quietly.

T'Spock quelled a human desire to snap, of course I am, I am Vulcan. Instead she took a step forward and said, "Very."

**A/N:**

The Olsons are a nasty pair that I borrowed from Notes From the Classroom's brilliant "People Will Say". They're believable nasty too, one of the best villians I've seen written is Andrea Olson.

Anyhoo-One thing I don't like about genderbenders is when the guy becomes a girl and the girl is just smarter and better than the guy. I hope it is clear where T'Spock's extra control is coming from.

Thanks to everyone for reviewing – and special thanks to those of you who have recommended this story!


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.**

Special thanks to beta Notes from the Classroom. Check out her latest "Crossing the Equator" for Pike/Number One & Spock/Uhura goodness.

**Chapter 10**

Kirk's narrowed his eyes. His jaw tightened. And then he said, "Alright. Listen, Vulcan guy behind me, that's Spock."

"Jim," said the old Vulcan stepping towards the human.

"Change of plans, Spock," said Kirk turning around. "You heard the lady; we're wasting time." Spinning back to T'Spock he said, "He's not just from an alternate reality, he's from the future - Nero's time. He's...well...I think he's you, or what you would be if you had an Y chromosome."

T'Spock looked up at the old man, if she were taller, her nose were longer and her jaw harder they would appear very similar.

"Fascinating," she said, she'd have to ponder this at length later. She looked at the woman.

"This is Maggie Scott," said Jim. "It was her theory of transwarp beaming that got us aboard...with help from Spock."

T'Spock looked at the old man, "Transwarp beaming, the technology used to destroy Vulcan, the Narada's offensive and defensive capabilities - you know the details of all these?"

"I do," said Spock.

"Then when we must get you aboard a shuttle before we return to Earth," said T'Spock.

"But if I stay here I may be able to help you," said the old man raising an eyebrow.

"No, she's right," said Kirk. "If we fail, you'll be needed in the Laurentian System. Our communications systems are still down, right?" He looked over T'Spock's shoulder.

"Yes," said Noyoto from only .98 meters away. T'Spock wasn't even sure when had he left his station, but she was grateful to have him close. "The only way we're communicating with Starfleet is via messenger."

The old Vulcan stood stock still. T'Spock tilted her head; she was about to order him into a shuttle when Kirk whispered to him, "How many times have I let you down, old friend?"

T'Spock blinked, bewildered. Old friend?

The old Vulcan looked down. "Very well," he said. "I will go."

Turning to the helm T'Spock said, "We need to develop a plan, Mr. Chekov." Looking over to Ms. Scott she said, "You may be able to help."

"Sounds like fun!" said Maggie.

T'Spock turned to Kirk. She did not like him, but Pike had made him first officer. "Mr. Kirk, would you broadcast the change of course and see to it Mr. Spock and as many refugees as possible get aboard a shuttle? Then join us for our strategy session."

T'Spock looked over at Amanda.

Kirk whispered quietly, "I'll try to get her aboard that shuttle, too."

"You are welcome to try," said T'Spock, restraining a sigh.

"Aye, Captain," said Kirk. She glanced over in time to see him flash a wide smile.

Again T'Spock was bewildered. Was it bravado? Or was he trying to be reassuring? Even with all of Sarek's memories she was unsure. She'd have to ask Noyoto about it later.

x x x x

"Lieutenant Uhura, have you been able to configure the Universal Translator for this new Romulan dialect?" T'Spock asked.

Noyoto was standing with her, Maggie, Bones, and Sulu by the view screen. Resisting the urge to crack the PADD he was holding over the nearest piece of inert equipment, Noyoto said, "No, and at the rate it's going I won't be able to sync it up to Terran French. The UT keeps going on and off line."

"We cannot spare anyone in engineering to fix it," said T'Spock.

"Understood, Sir," said Noyoto. Engineering was busy with life support, and he was partial to being able to breathe.

Across the room the turbolift doors slid open. Stepping out rubbing his temple, Kirk said, "Spock is aboard the shuttle, along with the elders, and a few of the women, the children - and your mother, Captain."

T'Spock got very still. And then, turning to Sulu and Bones, as though he had not spoken, T'Spock said, "We have to attack the Narada from within. We will not succeed in a conventional attack."

Frowning Kirk said, "You're welcome."

Noyoto suspected T'Spock was relieved but couldn't actually say it. The woman wasn't precisely expressive when it came to her emotions.

Noyoto looked at Kirk and nodded.

Still rubbing his forehead, Kirk gave him a strained half smile.

"It's absolutely essential we stay invisible to the Narada," said Sulu.

"Agreed," said Kirk and T'Spock in unison.

"And then what?" said McCoy, "Go in there with guns blazing?"

"If necessary," said T'Spock.

"Yep," said Kirk.

"Absolutely" said Noyoto. "The question is," he said, "How to do we stay invisible to get close enough to do that?"

"I bet you'll be the first in line to, volunteer to go play cowboy," said Bones to Jim.

Noyoto watched T'Spock turn sharply to Bones. She'd been so amazingly controlled - but there was something in her eyes. Something that said, "Toss out another useless comment like that and I will throw you through the view screen."

Noyoto cleared his throat, "Not helpful, Doctor."

T'Spock's frame relaxed minutely.

"Captain!" said Chekov, hopping across the deck.

"Yes, Mr. Chekov?" said T'Spock.

"Based on the Narada's course from Vulcan, I have projected that Nero will travel past Saturn. Like Sulu said, we need to stay invisible to Nero or he'll destroy us. If Ms. Scott can get us to Warp factor 4, and if we drop out of warp behind one of Saturn's moons, say Titan, the magnetic distortion from Saturn's rings will make us invisible to Nero's sensors. From there, as long as the drill is not activated we can beam aboard the enemy ship."

"Aye," said Maggie. "That would work."

"Wait a minute," said Bones to Chekov. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen," said Chekov.

"Oh, good," said Bones.

Seeing T'Spock's eyes narrow, Noyoto coughed. "Watch the ad hominems Bones."

T'Spock tilted her head to Chekov. "You are correct. I can confirm your telemetry. If Mr. Sulu is able to maneuver us into position I can beam aboard the ship, steal the black hole device and if possible bring back Captain Pike."

Swallowing, Noyoto said, "With all due respect, no you can't, Sir."

Swiveling to him with the grace of a snake, T'Spock said, "Why not?"

"Because you're the Captain," said Kirk stepping closer to Noyoto.

"I can cite the exact regulation, if you want," Noyoto said. His jaw tightened.

T'Spock stared at him.

"I'm the only person here who has extensive combat training and speaks Romulan," said Noyoto. "It is logical to send me."

T'Spock stiffened.

"And me," said Kirk.

Noyoto looked at Kirk and nodded. "There's no one else I'd trust more," he said. It was true. Kirk was inventive, and cool under pressure. Both of which they needed.

T'Spock was silent. It was only for a few heart beats but enough time for everyone to look from Noyoto to her and back again.

At last she said, "Mr. Uhura, I see why you would be a logical choice. However," she looked at Kirk, "besides combat skills, I fail to see how you are a more logical choice than myself."

Touching his temple again, Kirk said, "Before he left aboard the shuttle, Spock melded with me again."

T'Spock tilted her head, "Again?"

"Yeah," said Kirk. "This time he implanted the exact location of his ship in my brain...and the access codes. And you, Sir," he said, "are the logical choice to remain on the bridge." He looked at Maggie, "You're the only person who can check her math quickly enough to save our skins."

"Hey, no fair!" said Maggie. "Everyone forgets to carry the one sometimes!"

All eyes went to the damp engineer.

"I see your point," said T'Spock, sagging slightly. "Mr. Sulu, Mr. Chekov, plot as a course to Titan. Doctor McCoy, please return to sick bay. Ms. Scott, please report to engineering."

Noyoto exhaled a breath. Everyone in the small group dispersed except for Kirk, T'Spock and himself. Kirk's eyes went between them, then clearing his throat he said, "I'll report to the armory."

T'Spock said nothing.

"Didn't you once tell me, worry is illogical?" said Noyoto trying to smile.

Taking a step forward she said, "I am not sure the rule applies in this circumstance." And then she spun on her heels and said, "I will see you at the transporter pad."

x x x x

Strapping on his phaser, Noyoto strode into the transporter room with Kirk. From the control panel Maggie said, "Wow, they actually managed to get us into position."

He cast a worried gaze in the obviously brilliant but slightly daffy engineer's direction.

Fortunately, T'Spock was standing beside her. "I have confirmed 's calculations."

Noyoto sighed in relief.

"I didnna forget to carry the one this time!" said the slightly bedraggled redshirt, hands dancing over the panels as she did a final check.

T'Spock nodded at Noyoto. Forcing himself to look her in the eye, he said, "You know, if you get a tactical advantage..."

T'Spock looked down.

"Save our planet before you save us," said Kirk.

Lifting her head, T'Spock looked at Kirk, "I will take the most logical course of action."

She turned her eyes to Noyoto, "No matter the circumstances."

"We'll contact you when we're ready to beam back, Captain," said Noyoto.

T'Spock nodded. Straightening and putting her hands behind her back, she said, "Gentlemen, it is time."

For a moment, Noyoto did not move, could not move. He wished he could have one more repeat of that first and last kiss, or even to just the electric spark of her fingers on his. But it wasn't going to happen.

Swallowing, he nodded again. T'Spock's mouth opened just a fraction, and she but she said nothing.

Turning around he climbed up the transporter pad. Kirk was already there.

Stepping forward, T'Spock said, "Mr. Kirk...Noyoto...good luck."

Her eyes were glued to Noyoto the whole time. It was a completely illogical statement, and the first time she'd ever used his name in public. It wasn't the same as a tearful farewell. Oddly, it was better.

"Thank you," said Noyoto.

T'Spock stepped behind the transporter screen. Smirking, Kirk said softly, "Good luck..._Noooyoooto._"

"No comment," Noyoto said. Staring down at his communicator he resisted the urge to strangle the man his life depended on.

"Okey dokey, then," said Maggie. "If there is any common sense in the design of the enemy ship, I should be putting you somewhere in the cargo bay. There shouldn't be a soul in sight."

Next to Noyoto Kirk said, "Energize."

Noyoto felt the familiar whisk of static around his body and then the neat and familiar curves of the transporter pad disappeared. White light was replaced with dim green punctuated by blasts of red and yellow.

It took a moment for Noyoto to realize they had materialized in the middle of a phaser battle.

"Cover," screamed Kirk.

Pulling Kirk's sleeve, Noyoto pointed with the phaser he'd instinctively drawn.

"Bulkhead! Run!" he said.

Diving behind the bulkhead, Kirk on his heels, Noyoto spun to look at the fray they'd just emerged from.

The Romulans were firing at _each other._

"Looks like you were right, Lieutenant," said Kirk. "We might have some help."

"Yeah, but from which team?" said Noyoto.

"Good question," said Kirk.

Noyoto glanced down at his comm. The indicator light was dark. "Our comms are out," he said.

Swallowing Kirk nodded. "The drill is down."

"Yep," said Noyoto trying to control his racing heart.

Eyes still on the phaser fight beyond the bulkhead Kirk said, "Maybe while they keep each other busy -"

From behind came a deep voice in the strange heavily accented Romulan. _"Maybe while they keep each other busy you can die."_

**A/N:**  
>Quite a few twists in that chapter! Unlike a lot of people, I think Kirk was really motivated by a desire to save Earth when he fought back on the bridge.<p>

Notes was pretty disappointed in the revised transporter scene, but she decided what happened was better, and more in character - especially since T'Spock's got Sarek's katra under the hood...Errr...but don't worry. Lots of nookie at the end of the story.

Anyway, reviews do encourage me to keep posting. ;-) Please let me know


	11. Chapter 11

**Special thanks to beta Notes. Check out her latest, "Crossing the Equator" in my faves.**

**I don't own. I don't profit.**

**Chapter 11**

T'Spock stared at the empty transporter pad.

"I like this ship," said Maggie, beside her. "It's excitin'!"

T'Spock raised an eyebrow at the strange creature and then exited to the bridge, her hands clasped tightly behind her back.

Did Noyoto know...had he understood that when she put her hands behind her back it was to restrain herself from doing something inappropriate not just by Vulcan code of conduct, but Starfleet's as well?

She took a deep breath and focused on putting one foot in front of the other as she made her way to the turbolift. She felt herself become calmer and paradoxically more alert. It was the work of Sarek's neural pathways, firing alongside her own. She remembered Amanda's answer when T'Spock had asked her when Sarek would stop trying to protect her.

Never.

His calm and prospective protected her now, even as it forced her to contain feelings she'd rather express. But she could see what was done was done. Now she could only do her best to bring Noyoto back safely.

The doors of the lift opened and she stepped out onto the bridge.

"They have activated the drill," said Chekov.

"Communications and transport are inoperative," said the acting communications officer.

"Kirk and Uhura, are on their own now," said Sulu.

A few mumbled words with her hand on his temple and she and Noyoto would never have to be on their own again. It was illogical to feel regret for chances untaken. T'Spock walked to the center of the bridge and sat down in the Captain's chair.

x x x x

_"Drop your phasers and turn around, hands in the air,"_ the voice said.

Noyoto looked sideways at Kirk. "He said to..."

"It's okay, I understood."

Noyoto blinked.

"Mind meld," Kirk whispered. "Do what they say,"

Nodding and setting his phaser down beside Kirk's, Noyoto lifted his hands behind his head and turned very slowly.

Facing them were two rough Romulans with mourning markings tattooed to their foreheads. Their clothes were a mish-mash of garments from several different alien species. One held a Klingon rifle, the other a Starfleet phaser.

_"James T. Kirk," _sneered the Romulan with the phaser. _"We've caught Captain James T. Kirk...someday to be Admiral Kirk...well, not in this life. Wait until Ayel and Nero find out."_

_Captain...Admiral_ James T. Kirk?

_"We should keep him alive," _said the other Romulan.

Well, that sounded promising.

_"But who is the other one?"_

Tilting his head, the first Romulan said, _"I do not recognize him from the historical holos. Let's kill him."_

Pointing his rifle directly at Noyoto, the second one came closer. _"Who are you?" _ He demanded.

Noyoto gritted his teeth. _"Lieutenant Uhura. Serial number..."_

The Romulan froze. _"Stop!"_

Uhura's jaw stopped mid syllable.

_"Perhaps he is related to Admiral Uhura. Maybe he could be useful?" _said the first Romulan.

Eyes wide, the Romulan with the rifle shook his head frantically. _"No, no, the time line is wrong. He is seeking to confuse us like the Vulcan whore. He will pay."_

With a scream, the Romulan lifted the rifle up and brought it down towards Noyoto's head. Ducking, Noyoto grabbed the weapon and tried to wrest it from his attacker's grasp.

Trying to take the weapon away was a mistake. He didn't have practical experience fighting someone with three times his strength. He quickly found himself thrown to the ground, rifle pinned to his chest. It felt like his ribs were close to breaking. He gasped for breath.

"Noyoto!" yelled Kirk wrapping his arm around the Romulan's neck.

The Romulan stood up, taking his rifle with him.

Noyoto stumbled to his feet as the Romulan backed towards the bulkhead and banged Kirk against it. "Unhhh," grunted Kirk, but he didn't let go. Forgetting about the first Romulan, Noyoto rushed forward and delivered a perfect punch to the Romulan's jaw.  
>...that did nothing.<p>

There was the sound of phaser fire, and someone yelled, _"Stop."_

Ignoring the voice, Noyoto punched the Romulan again - and got butted backwards with the rifle for his pains. The Romulan banged Kirk against the bulkhead again.

There was the sound of another phaser blast. Noyoto froze as the pulse passed right by his head and went directly into the Romulan's gut.

_"Stop, I said!" _

The Romulan slumped forward. Kirk slid down the bulkhead, and Noyoto turned his head slowly around.

A new Romulan stood behind the first now prone on the floor. Behind him stood four others.

_"If you want to save your Captain Pike, you will come with us," _he hissed.

_"Have to get to Spock's ship,"_ gasped Kirk in fractured Romulan. _"Stop. Drill."_

_"You will not be able to bypass the ship's security," _said the Romulan.

_"Access code,"_ said Kirk tapping his head. Pointing at Noyoto, he said. _"Him get captain."_

The Romulan stared at Kirk for a moment, phaser still drawn and aimed at him.  
>Setting it down he turned to Noyoto and said, <em>"Very well. You will go with Doctor Anil. Do you understand?" <em>

_"Yes,"_ said Noyoto.

Noyoto's eyes met Kirk's. This could be a trap, but what choice did they have? Nodding, Kirk said, "You heard the man, let's do it."

x x x x

The ship's override code rolled off Jim's tongue without his even thinking about it.

"Welcome aboard, Captain Kirk," said the ship.

Jim blinked. How had the other Spock known this moment would happen? As soon as the question entered his mind, the answer came to him, a remnant of the mind meld. The other Spock had not _known_ Jim would ever board this ship, he merely hoped - and rationalized this hope as not being unreasonable considering Jim...or the other Jim, often got away with the impossible.

Jim swallowed. He had a feeling he'd be tripping over the lingering affects of the mind meld for years to come.

He studied the bright, clean interior of the ship, so different from the Romulan vessel outside.

_"Human,"_ said a Romulan, _"we do not have much time if you wish to save your planet."_

Jim turned around; he was flanked by four Romulans. Whether they were guards or comrades he still wasn't sure.

Narrowing his eyes, one of the Romulans said, _"It is obvious you are very familiar with the ship."_

"Uhhh..." said Jim.

_"You will fly it,"_ hissed another.

Jim tilted his head. Did he know how to fly it? "Yeah..." He said surprised to be telling the truth - another remnant of the meld. He turned around and began walking to the cockpit. "Yeah, I do."

He heard the Romulans muttering behind him. Turning he saw three of them exiting the gang plank, their long coats lifting in the air behind them.

Menacingly raising a rifle, the one remaining said, _ "I will stay to see that you destroy the drill, and then the red matter. You will bring no more dishonor upon our houses."_

_"That was plan," _said Jim.

The rifle clicked. _"Then get to it,"_ said the Romulan.

"Right," said Jim seating himself in the ship's only chair. It spun around of its own accord, and Jim just looked in awe at the controls. He was in pain. He was frightened. The fate of planet Earth was in his hands. But at that moment all he could think was, "Wow. So cool."

x x x x

Doctor Anil walked in front of him, her hair an unwashed mass of curls, her clothing the same mishmash of designs from a dozen different civilizations that all of Nero's crew seemed to wear.

She'd said only one thing to Noyoto since he'd left the other mutineers and Kirk. _"If we hurry we may neutralize the Centurian slug and your captain may avoid permanent paralysis."_

The prognosis had been significantly chilling to make Noyoto keep any questions to himself as they she led him at a jog through mishapen tunnels, and strange empty boulevards, first one direction, then another.

It had been years since Noyoto had taken biology, but he vividly remembered looking at a bit of malignant skin cells beneath a microscope. The cells within the tumor were irregular and warped, their spread random. They had filled Noyoto with a sense of _wrongness_. He felt the same wrongness in the bowels of the Narada.

As they jumped from a ledge to another, Anil drew to a stop. Beckoning with a hand to Noyoto, she led him down a narrow tunnel that was too low for either of them. It appeared to be a service conduit of some kind. At the end was a low door with a single small window of green glass.

Anil peered hesitantly through it. Noyoto carefully did the same. His heart promptly fell. There were at least a dozen Romulans milling directly in front of them.

Drawing back from the window Anil said, _"Do not worry. My companions will release the first blast soon, and those guards will run to assist."_

Noyoto wasn't sure what she meant, but he didn't have much say in the matter, so he remained silent.

Anil leaned against the side of the tunnel. _"I heard you say your name is Uhura."_

_"Yes," _said Noyoto studying the mourning markings tattooed into her olive skin. She might have been beautiful at one point, but she looked too care worn now. Like all of them she looked middle aged. Maybe it was because Noyoto and Anil had kept out of sight, but he hadn't seen any evidence of children or of elders. It added to the ship's timeless nightmare quality.

_"We have not had access to the subspace communications of your time," _said Anil, startling Noyoto from his thoughts ._ "Ayel, Nero's aide said it was because of power rationing, and system failures...but we suspect now that it was sabotage."_

So they had been locked in time, in their own way.

Looking away she said, "Most of us don't even know Standard. They kept the truth hidden from us."

Meeting Noyoto's eyes she said lowly. _"You are proof that are vengeance was misplaced, that we destroyed another people from another universe, that we have dishonored all our houses."_

Noyoto tilted his head, unsure of her meaning.

"_We were allowed access to historical holos of our own time though," _she said. "_And we all know about the Enterprise and her crew. Even about Lieutenant Uhura."_

Noyoto whispered, _"He became an Admiral, didn't he?"_

A small twisted smile crossed Anil's face. _"There was no he."_

_x x x x_

"Startup sequence initiated," said the ship.

Jim took a deep breath as the ship lifted above the hangar floor. He grinned. And then the door of the hangar bay was coming into view...quickly. Too quickly.

_"Fire at the doors!" _screamed the Romulan.

"Uh..." said Jim. Of all the things for Spock to forget...

The Romulan leaned over his shoulder and began frantically pressing some buttons.

"_Not that...not that...infernal Vulcan engineering..."_

Phaser fire burst from the Spock's ship and then they were bursting into the atmosphere above Earth.

Leaning back, the Romulan glared at Jim.

_"Thanks," _said Jim. "I got it now."

The Romulan narrowed his eyes. Jim spun back to the controls and really hoped he had gotten it.

x x x x

There was a loud explosion beyond the door. Looking quickly through the window, Noyoto saw a solitary Romulan standing in front of a lonely portal.

Anil nodded and began rummaging through her coat. She pulled out a nasty looking hypospray. "We must kill him to save your captain."

With that she kicked the door open with a foot. Noyoto fired at the lone guard.

Running past the prone body, Anil hit a few grimy buttons in a keypad so dirty it was nearly invisible. The door opened to a shop of horrors.

There was Pike, seemingly unconscious, strapped to a bed in the center of a pool of frightening looking green water.

Noyoto ran over, Anil followed.

"Uhura?" said Pike, his voice barely a whisper.

"I've got to get you out of here," Noyoto said.

Pike's eyes went to Anil, brandishing the hypo above his neck.

"Who are you?" Pike said.

"She's here to help," said Noyoto.

"Wha-" said Pike. But he was cut off by the hypo on his neck. Pike's body jerked and he screamed.

Noyoto's eyes went to Anil.

Looking down at Pike now undergoing convulsions, she said, "Good, it is working."

Noyoto heard something behind him. His hands dropped from Pike's bonds to his phaser but before he had it in his grasp, before he could even turn around Anil jumping up onto the table and over Pike screaming a Romulan word, one Noyoto knew from ancient texts, but never heard uttered.

"_Intashallisht!"_

The hairs rose on the back of his neck. As he spun around and dropped to a crouch, his fingers unholstered his phaser. All he could see was Ayel's back, and then there was the sound of a phaser and Anil crumbled to the floor.

He saw a pair of surprised eyes and fired. The second Romulan fell to the floor too next to Anil.

Staring at them both, Noyoto found himself gasping for breath, Anil's last word ringing in his ears. _Intashallisht_. There was no Standard translation, but it translated very loosely to bringer of dishonor, an object of blood debt.

Pike's gasps brought him back to reality. Turning, he began furiously working to unbind the captain. Pike's eyes were glazed over and his body still convulsing.

As soon Noyoto had the bonds undone, Pike's torso twisted over the edge of the torture bed. He began heaving and all Noyoto could think to do was to rub his back and say, "Easy, easy," as though Pike was just suffering from a night of heavy drinking.

Pike gave one final wretch and something black and shiny came writhing from his mouth. When it landed on the ground with a plop, Noyoto saw that it was actually an insectoid of some kind. It reminded him slightly of a crawfish, but blacker, and softer. With a shudder it scampered across the floor and into the nearby pool of green water.

Shivering in Noyoto's arms, Pike whispered. "Uhura..."

"Yes, sir?"

"Don't ever eat one of those if you can help it."

Noyoto looked down at the man he was cradling in his arms. Pike was weak and beaten and Noyoto had never been in as much awe of anyone in his life.

x x x x

Kirk didn't even watch as the drill tumbled into the San Francisco Bay. He turned Spock's ship back towards the Narada.

The communicator blinked. He was being hailed.

Kirk hit a few buttons and found himself face to face with Nero.

"Hey, I don't suppose you know me," he said with a smile even though he was nearly frozen in his own sweat.

"Kirk!" screamed Nero. "Where is Spock?"

"Maybe if you catch me, I'll tell you," said Jim.

He cancelled the communicator and jumped into warp.

_"What are you doing?" _hissed his Romulan passenger stepping closer.

_"Red matter. Kill. Nero. Not Earth,"_ said Jim.

_"How?"_ said the Romulan not sounding convinced.

Jim smiled wryly. When Pike recruited him at that Iowa bar so long ago he'd said, "Your father was captain of a star ship for 8 minutes; during that time he saved 500 lives. I dare you to do better."

Well, Jim hadn't made Captain, and he'd saved a few billion lives. But he was still going to the same end.

_"You. Me. Ship._ Boom!" Jim said.

The Romulan stepped back. _"Yes. Yes...that is good."_

Jim didn't share the Romulan's sentiment. But then he was being hailed again by the Narada. Jim checked his scopes. They were far enough away from Earth and any inhabited planet. He answered the hail.

"I should have destroyed the Enterprise when I got the chance!" screamed Nero.

"Yeah, well we all have regrets," said Jim, spinning the ship around. "I'm ordering you to surrender now. No terms. No conditions."

There was a hiss of disapproval from behind Jim.

"Never!" Nero screamed.

Jim sighed and hit the controls again.

"Captain Kirk," said the ship, "you are on a collision course. Incoming missiles. If the red matter is ignited, you will be destroyed."

"Understood," said Jim, the incoming missiles' lights of fire before his eyes.

_"In the other life, you were a great man as well,"_ said the Romulan.

Jim tilted his head, not feeling particularly great at that moment.

"Incoming ship," said Spock's ship.

And suddenly there was no such thing as no-win scenarios again.

Hitting the hail button, Jim yelled, "Enterprise, two to beam out," and he felt the familiar caress of electrostatic on his skin.

x x x x

The black velvet of deep space disappeared and Jim was standing on the bright, solid, human transporter pad of the Enterprise. He looked to his left, and there was his Romulan, looking around disorientated; to his right were Captain Pike and Uhura. Pike looked a little wobbly but alright.

T'Spock and Maggie stood at the transporter station. Grinning at them, Jim said, "Nice timing, Maggie!"

"Did you see that?" Maggie shouted, "4 targets, 2 locations, 1 transporter pad! Ha!"

Laughing, Jim turned to Pike and Uhura.

"You made it, Kirk," said Pike with a tired smile. Uhura didn't say anything. His eyes were locked on T'Spock.

"It is not over," said the Vulcan. Nodding to Pike she said, "Sir." And then spun around without so much as a nice to see you.

And suddenly McCoy came out of nowhere and was running to assist Captain Pike. Uhura was down the stairs and off the pad running towards the door in step with T'Spock. Kirk wasn't sure if he was imagining it, but he thought he saw their fingers brush. He blinked and the moment was over.

Cupcake rushed up to the Romulan on the pad. "He's with me!" said Kirk. "He saved all our lives," and then he ran after Uhura and T'Spock.

x x x x

As soon as Noyoto's fingers touched T'Spock's, she knew that if he had been underwhelmed by the restraint of her goodbye, all was forgiven now.

She could not lose him now.

Noyoto at her side, Jim Kirk close behind, she headed for the turbolift. As they stepped into the lift Ms. Scott called out from down the hall, "Well, I think I did a great job!"

Before she even had to open her mouth, Kirk shouted, "Get to engineering now!"

As the doors shut, T'Spock heard Ms. Scott's muffled, "Aye, sir."

"Captain," said Chekov as they stepped onto the bridge. "The enemy ship is losing power; their shields are down."

The Narada would be sucked into the rapidly growing singularity.

Staring at the viewscreen, T'Spock contemplated firing the last of the photon torpedoes to ensure their demise and that they didn't become the problem of some other alternate reality.

"Sir, we should hail them," said Kirk.

"I agree," said Noyoto, turning from where he stood beside the communications officer.

The Romulan ship was helpless. And it was the humans who were prepared to treat them as logic demanded.

Their world had not been destroyed.

The patterns of neural networks that were not hers but Sarek's fired to life. What did she have left but logic?

"Make it so," said T'Spock.

The words were barely out of her mouth when the acting communications officer said, "Sir, they are hailing us."

"Answer it," said T'Spock.

On the screen was a new Romulan. His clothes looked like rags. Everything in the field of vision behind him appeared to be on fire.

"This is Captain T'Spock of the U.S.S. Enterprise," said T'Spock, summoning all her inner control. "Your ship is compromised. You are too close to the singularity to survive without assistance." She took a breath. "Which we are willing to provide."

"_We require no assistance,"_ said the Romulan in his own language. _"It is Intashallisht_."

T'Spock's eyes widened, she took a step towards the screen. "That is not logical. We can help you," she said for the first time wanting to help.

Behind the Romulan, explosions roared.

Raising his hand in a very poor version of the Vulcan salute, he said in equally poor Vulcan, _"T'Spock, we grieve with thee."_

There was a beep as the transmission ended. The view screen seemed to ignite as the Narada exploded, its twisted limbs for an instant a bright new star on the horizon, and then it was sucked into the singularity and was gone.

No one on the bridge made a sound. T'Spock was dimly aware of the sound of the turbolift door, and then there was a collective intake of breath.

Turning, T'Spock saw the Romulan from the turbolift, phaser in his hand. Before any words were out of her mouth he put the weapon to his own head.

"No!" Kirk screamed.

"_Intashallisht," _said the Romulan, and pulled the trigger.

x x x x

"Status report, T'Spock," said Captain Pike as he strode from the turbolift into the darkened bridge. He wore a Starfleet issued parka. He was clean-shaven. His stride was sure and confident. She had heard about the Centurian slug, but now he looked healthier and more hale than anyone else on the bridge, including herself.

"Ms. Scott and I were able to restore life support," said T'Spock, her breath hanging in the frosty air in front of her, "However, without the warp coils we are short on power. Life support is currently set to minimum."

"Quick thinking on Ms. Scott's part, ejecting the coils to give us enough thrust to escape the singularity," said Pike, adjusting his coat. "How is the subspace array?"

T'Spock straightened. "Lieutenant Uhura was able to repair it with help of the crew from a Vulcan freighter we rescued. He was also able to restore the Universal Translator as well." The last she'd seen Noyoto, she and Kirk had ordered him to report to Dr. McCoy. Noyoto had seriously sliced his arm while crawling through the power conduits and hadn't even realized it. T'Spock still remembered the lonely trail of crimson that had followed in his wake as he'd headed for sickbay.

"And word from the fleet?" said Pike, staring out the view screen.

"They are currently engaged in extensive rescue efforts in the Vulcan System," said T'Spock. "But the U.S.S. Sugihara will rendezvous with us within 24 hours."

Turning Pike fixed his blue eyes on her. "And how long has it been since you had any sleep?"

She had not slept since before Kirk's trial. "39 hours and sixty seven minutes," said T'Spock.

"You are relieved," said Pike.

"Yes, sir," said T'Spock, but she did not move.

"I order you to go get some sleep," said Pike.

T'Spock nodded and headed for the turbolift. The doors opened at the bridge crew's sleeping deck.

T'Spock stared out at the dimly lit hallway for 30.76 seconds. She would not be alone in her quarters. She had given her cabin to four of the Vulcan survivors who had not been able to leave on the shuttle with Spock and her mother.

She did not want to be alone. But she found she did not wish to be surrounded by the collective grief of strangers, either.

She looked down at the controls of the turbolift. "Computer, where is Lieutenant Uhura?"

"Lieutenant Uhura is in his quarters."

T'Spock hit the turbolift controls. When the door opened she walked down the hallway as if in a trance. She would not let herself question the logic of this decision; she would not let herself think of the implications.

She hit the chime to his door. Carefully controlled doubts began to crack through her self-control. What was she doing? Why was she here? Was this logical?

But then the door opened and Noyoto was there, his eyes hooded and sleepy, his frosty breath mingling with hers.

Without a word he drew her into an embrace. It seemed like his arms were the perfect length to wrap around the small of her back. And it seemed like his shoulder was just the right height to tuck her forehead against. She let her hands touch his back and felt the muscles so close to the surface beneath the light black T he wore.

"You must be cold," she said.

He huffed softly. "Come in," he said, drawing her into his quarters.

She did not protest.

**A/N:**

**Action, adventure, romance...this chapter had it all (Well, maybe it could have been funnier). But it did have some twists to the original story for good measure.**

**If you read and enjoyed please leave a review.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.**

Special thanks to Beta Notes from the Classroom. Check out her "Crossing the Equator" in my faves for Spock/Uhura & Pike/Number One Goodness.

**Chapter 12**

T'Spock did not know what to expect when she entered Noyoto's quarters. That he would help her slip out of her coat was not unexpected. That he would kiss her again, that was not unexpected. Even pulling her gently into his bed was not unexpected. Humans were notoriously more sexually "expressive" than Vulcans.

That he would not push her to remove her clothes was unexpected. That he would kiss her eyelids and cradle her face in his hands without seeking anything more...that was unexpected. And that he would kiss her forehead and roll her over on her side and wrap his body around hers, gently holding her until they both drifted off to sleep - that was completely unexpected.

In the middle of the night she woke up from a dream with a start, gasping for breath, Sarek's body disappearing into a void replaying before her eyes. Noyoto pulled her tighter, kissed the back of her head, murmured softly and pulled the sweat-drenched hair from her forehead.

Reaching for that hand, she found his fingertips, held them tightly and let her mind find his. She found he grieved, but not as deeply. He loved her, but it was not as deep an emotion as that feeling she had for him, that expansive sensation of falling into the blackness between the stars.

A few days ago she might have been disappointed, but now with her father's memories she realized Noyoto was just human. And she was grateful that his feelings weren't as intense. She thought that maybe if they were as powerful as her own they would spiral into a loop of despair she wouldn't be able to pull herself from.

"I woke you," she said, pulling his hand to her mouth to kiss the backs of his fingers. It was a natural motion, a human motion; Sarek's memories told her that.

"It's okay," he whispered. "I'm glad you're here." And she could feel the sincerity behind his words. She held onto that one bright emotion. It sheltered her mind, just as his body sheltered her body. It was the only thing that allowed her to drift back to sleep.

When she woke up again their bodies had shifted. Noyoto was lying on his back. Her head was pillowed on his arm.

"You awake?" Noyoto asked.

"Yes," said T'Spock. That emotion, that darkness that was belonging and protectiveness, and maybe was what humans called love, too, was blooming in the pit of her stomach.

Noyoto traced a finger down her forehead to her nose, then to her lips. She felt sadness, but playfulness, too. She kissed the finger instinctively and felt a spike of desire, from her or him, or both she wasn't sure.

"I don't want to get up," he said.

Checking her internal chronometer T'Spock allowed herself to sigh. She didn't want to get up either. Despite the relative coolness of Noyoto's body, their combined heat still managed to make their cocoon quite snug. She was warm. If she tucked her nose against his skin and closed her eyes she could let her senses be overwhelmed by the smell of him, the feel of him underneath her, solid and real. She could forget everything else. The reason the Enterprise was so cold and dark -

She pressed her forehead more tightly against him and tried to push the images of Vulcans' last moments out of her mind.

Pulling her even closer, Noyoto brushed his fingers over her temple again. Clutching them she found the relative stability of Noyoto's mind. He was concerned, content, and aroused all at once.

Noyoto sighed. "Computer," he said. "Are the sonic showers still offline?"

_"Affirmative."_

Noyoto squeezed her tighter and pulled them both deeper beneath the covers. "An excuse to stay in bed a few minutes longer."

"7 minutes and 37 seconds," said T'Spock.

"I will savor every one of those 457 seconds," said Noyoto speaking T'Spock's thought out loud.

For a moment the universe fell away. She was safe and protected and understood. She broadcast her pleasure and happiness through her fingers.

"That made you happy?" He said pressing his fingers against hers. She felt the buzz of curiosity.

"Yes," said T'Spock eyeing the smooth skin on his neck, the color of forbidden chocolate. She felt a nearly irrepressible urge to bite him and flushed with warmth. Was that appropriate? Sorting through Sarek's memories she saw biting wasn't unheard of among humans, but it was her Vulcan portion that made it feel so...essential. She blinked. It would be something that would best be discussed before being indulged in... Her face went a little green as images of her parents intimacy flashed through her mind.

"What's wrong?" said Noyoto sensing her distress.

Pushing those thoughts from her mind, T'Spock said, "It is not important." Throwing a possessive leg over his body she froze. Even if he wasn't acting on his arousal, parts of his body were. As her thigh brushed over him she felt heat spark in her fingertips.

T'Spock had no practical experience with male anatomy, given this, the next word out of her mouth could be forgiven.

"Fascinating," she said idly playing with his fingers and letting the feeling transmit.

Noyoto jerked his fingers from her hand. "Ahh! That tickles my nose!" Turning his head he sneezed.

T'Spock blinked at him. "That is my mother's reaction to fascination as well."

Raising an eyebrow and giving a sniff he touched her fingers again. He was amused, aroused and annoyed all at once.

"You find that amusing don't you?" said Noyoto. She did, but could feel it wasn't really a question.

Grumbling he rolled her body on top of his. She could feel the full length of him pressed beneath her.

T'Spock's body went hot. She pushed her forehead to his, and clenched her jaw.

"It's time to go," he whispered.

She raised her head and looked down at Noyoto's eyes, brown not black. His nose was so distinctly African. His lips were full, just a shade darker than his skin and so bitable.

But he was right. "Yes," she said. And suddenly the weight of the world came crashing in.

"I'm sorry," said Noyoto.

She could feel his sorrow for her. All she could do was nod.

They slipped out of bed and into their ponchos in silence.

On their way to the bridge they stopped in the mess for some breakfast and luxuries of luxuries in the still dark, still cold ship, hot coffee. Trying to keep their fingers warm, T'Spock and Noyoto wrapped their hands around their paper cups. They spoke only of technical issues - the subspace array, the universal translator. And then looking around the mess, Noyoto said, "We picked up a lot more survivors than I realized. I'm glad."

T'Spock gazed around the room. It was nearly packed with crew members and Vulcans - for the most part not interacting with one another. But that wasn't what caught T'Spock's attention.

She should have known...

Vulcan males were regarded as more expendable than females and were more likely to be sent off planet.

She hadn't really thought of it...but now...

Nearly 88% of the Vulcans in the room were male. The universe suddenly became even heavier.

x x x x

Only 12 more hours and the Sugihara would rendezvous with the Enterprise. Noyoto shivered and adjusted his coat. The hallways were still dark and cold.

The Sugihara was bringing warp coil replacements. T'Spock said that after the rendezvous there would still be another 12 hours required to get them installed.

Stopping at the door to his quarters, Noyoto entered his combination and exhaled a long frosty breath. As soon as the door opened he shot into his tiny room, stripped off his coat, and kicked off his boots. The sonic showers were online. Captain Pike had issued a special order allowing all crew members to indulge in 8 full minutes under the warm sonic blast. Noyoto couldn't wait for the chance to be warm, to be clean, and to maybe shed some of the stress of the last few days with the grime. He'd manned the subspace arrays and had fielded questions his entire double shift from crew members inquiring about survivors from the Battle of Vulcan. Kirk alone must have asked him six times about the Farragut.

He stripped off his undershirt and shirt in one motion. Casting them aside, he bent down and began sliding off his socks. He was just about to slip out of his pants when the chime rang.

Noyoto stared at the door. He knew who he wanted it to be - but T'Spock had been distant all day. Last night he'd felt her emotions in that peculiar semi-telepathic state she described as an "empathic link". He'd felt her being overcome by tides of anguish and despair that would roll in suddenly without warning.

Really, what could he expect? She'd lost her planet and watched her father die in front of her. She hadn't told him this, but the whole ship knew how she materialized on the transporter pad, hand outstretched, screaming for him.

Last sleep cycle he thought maybe he'd brought her a bit more calm, a bit of relief. But then at breakfast she'd suddenly withdrawn when he'd commented on the Vulcan refugees and how glad he was there were so many. What an asinine thing to say - he was still kicking himself. So many! Out of six billion souls...How could she not be insulted?

The chime sounded again. It was probably Kirk come to ask about Gaila and the Farragut again.

Slipping his coat over his bare chest, Noyoto walked to the entrance. "Door open."

There was a whoosh, and he stood face to face with T'Spock. She stood in her own coat, hands buried in her pockets, her legs appearing thin and long beneath the coat's bulk. Her eyes went from his face to his chest, and then down to his bare feet that had to be turning purple with cold about now.

"I was..." He took a breath. Rubbing a hand over his head he said, "Just about to take a sonic shower."

Lifting her eyes to his, she said, "Do you mind if I join you?"

He felt himself go warm to the tips of his frozen toes.

Looking down the hallway, he verified the coast was clear. He wasn't sure he cared, but maybe she did.

They were alone.

Wrapping his arms around her waist, he brought his lips to T'Spock's. Her lips, a little too dry, definitely too hot, responded. He felt her fingers go to his temples and there was that sensation of vertigo and then his vision went black and he felt something...an emotion he couldn't name; alien, but good. It was lust, and hunger, and possessiveness all in one. It made Noyoto feel _alive_, and feeling alive made him realize how much the events of the past few days had deadened him.

Noyoto pulled life, and T'Spock, closer. She raked her teeth down his bottom lip and that alien hunger deepened. Picking her up, he spun her around into his quarters and slammed the close door button with his palm.

**A/N:**

Sorry, no sexy shower scene depictions, gotta keep my PG-13 rating. If you read and enjoyed, please leave a review. It helps keep my posting!


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.**

Special thanks to beta Notes From the Classroom...who should start posting her story "Crossing the Equator" again soon. Put it on your alert! (That's a hint, Notes).

**Chapter 13**

Noyoto tried to lift his eyelids but thought better of it. He did his best to take in a deep breath - and failed. T'Spock's leg thrown over his stomach made it impossible. Despite her smaller size, her denser bone and muscle mass made her nearly as heavy as him. He made no effort to push off the leg depriving him of oxygen.

He had no feeling in one arm, but he could feel the soft silky brush of hair beneath his chin.

He was too hot.

Fluttering his eyes just a little, he found the corner of the duvet and pulled it down so half of him was exposed to the cool air of T'Spock's apartment in San Francisco. T'Spock did not move.

They had just docked the day before. The final leg of the Enterprise's journey had been exhausting for everyone. And then as soon as they hit planet they were dragged off to be interrogated by Starfleet Intelligence.

Well, SI called it "briefing."

As soon as Noyoto and T'Spock had been dismissed, they'd come here. They'd fallen together immediately, without preamble, without discussing Starfleet Intelligence, or the Enterprise's fate, or their future. Just as they had on the Enterprise that first time - and any moment they'd gotten alone on the trip home after that.

And it had felt right, every time. But now...

Noyoto rubbed his chin against the head tucked beneath it. T'Spock still did not move.

With his free hand he found her fingers. Closing his eyes he let his mind drift until he felt that familiar sensation of weightlessness. Noyoto had found telepathy, or empathy as T'Spock called it, was its own language. Instead of seeing or hearing the language, he felt it in the weight in his gut, the heat of his blood, along the hairs on the back of his neck...and in moments of passion in other places.

Noyoto was psi-null, but once the bridge between their minds was established, he didn't have to be a passive participant. If he focused on emotions or sensations, he could transmit them to T'Spock. If he focused his mind on something he wanted to find, he could feel...

...nothing...emptiness. He blinked and for a moment panicked; he half sat up. Was she breathing?

T'Spock stirred on his chest. She flexed her fingers against his. He felt a pleasant buzz along the length of his body where her body touched his, and heard a soft noise, almost like a purr. He felt a spark across his fingers and then T'Spock lifted her eyes to his.

"I startled you," she said, her black eyes blinking up at his.

Sinking back into the mattress, Noyoto said, "When I touched your hand I didn't feel anything."

Dropping her head back to his chest, T'Spock said, "I was meditating." She flexed her fingers against his and he felt the flush of her gratitude. "It is the first time I have since..."

She didn't finish, but she didn't have to. Squeezing her fingers, he kissed the top of her head. He was moved beyond words to think that he had given her some relief. But something still nagged at him.

He traced his fingers down hers, lifting up their arms as he did. There was a large green welt on her perfect alabaster skin. He had similar marks.

He wouldn't have thought he could really get into that sort of thing, but the empathic link between them made the act of marking each other's bodies very...stimulating. T'Spock seemed to need it.

What had she called it? An obsessive-compulsive territorial marking behavior.

T'Spock followed his eyes. He felt her body hum against his. Moving his fingers from hers, he traced the welt.

T'Spock literally purred.

Smiling, Noyoto said, "Never let it be said I'm not culturally sensitive."

Lifting her head, T'Spock arched an eyebrow. T'Spock's eyebrow arches had many meanings; this one Noyoto interpreted as a laugh. He smiled at her and T'Spock swung her full body over him. Reached down with her lips she nipped his collarbone. But not hard. Pinning his hands to the sheets with her own, she lifted her mouth to his and he felt that now familiar alien darkness rise behind his eyes. He burned to be closer to her, to be inside her again, to let passion bury everything that had occurred in the last few days, but he felt something else...

Pulling his legs up underneath him he flipped them over, reversing their positions.

Fingers intertwined he said, "What are you holding back?"

Turning her head, T'Spock tried to pull her fingers away, but Noyoto wouldn't let her. He swallowed, he shouldn't...it was wrong...there should be no demands.

But he found he couldn't hold back. "Tell me," he said.

The blackness behind his eyes disappeared and was replaced with a wall.

Noyoto's heart sank. Closing his eyes, he let himself fall to the sheets by her side. He kissed the nape of her neck and whispered, "I'm sorry."

And he was. And wasn't. He wasn't a fool. He was in love. It wasn't the first time -

And it was great, but the stakes were higher. It was harder to be casual. To be cool. To be the undemanding lover she needed.

T'Spock exhaled a long breath. Closing her eyes she said, "I believe my duty to my people may compel me to resign from Starfleet and assist in the colonization of a new Vulcan home world."

He didn't like the sound of that.

"You know," said Noyoto, "My parents were separated for long periods of time during their marriage while my father was in the fleet and my mother was in the diplomatic corps." True, they had been older, had been together as a couple longer before their separation, and Noyoto wasn't even sure he was ready for that with T'Spock...but he wasn't sure he wasn't ready.

T'Spock opened her eyes. But said nothing.

Drawing back from her, Noyoto felt the dry heat of bitterness in his mouth. "But I'm guessin' by assisting in colonization you're not talking about building roads and bridges."

"In part it would -" said T'Spock.

"Right," said Noyoto sitting up and swinging his legs over the bed. Rubbing his face with his hands, he said, "You're going to sacrifice all your training, your career, and your duty to the fleet to make some Vulcan babies."

...and she'd sacrifice him, but he wasn't going to say that.

"There is more to it than that..." said T'Spock.

"Really?" said Noyoto turning to look at her. He felt his face go hot. "Please don't tell me you're already married, or bonded or whatever Vulcans call it -"

Propping herself up on her elbows, T'Spock said evenly, "I am not bonded."

The sheet had fallen away from her bare chest...that Noyoto couldn't look at that moment.

Turning away and clenching his jaw, he said, "Will you even know him?"

Sitting upright beside him, without touching him, T'Spock, "Most likely not." She spoke the words as calmly as she would if she were reciting stats on subspace signal strength.

Gesturing towards the bed Noyoto said, "So what is this, a scientific experiment?"

"No!"

Noyoto looked at her. Her eyes were wide, her lips slightly parted. She lifted her hand towards his temple; it trembled in the air between them.

"Please," said T'Spock.

Noyoto just stared at her.

"I..." T'Spock closed her eyes. "I...this time...Later when I need strength, I will think of it. It will..." She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Lift me."

And he was lost.

Taking that trembling hand and pushing it to his temple, he dropped his lips to hers.

x x x x

T'Spock was in darkness. Longing, sadness, anger, frustration and tenderness filled her mind.

Blinking awake, she found Noyoto's eyes on hers. They lay on their sides, she beneath a duvet, his naked body in the open air. Their bodies only touched where his fingers brushed her temples.

He let out a breath and then said, "You know, T'Spock, the only defense force that the new Vulcan colony will have is Starfleet, diminished as it is. It is logical to remain in Starfleet to protect the new Vulcan."

T'Spock felt her stomach sink. His argument was logical - if the males of her kind did not undergo Pon Farr, she would readily take to the heavens without guilt or a second thought.

Pausing his fingers on her temples, Noyoto said, "You don't want to go...T'Spock, I feel it."

It was true, the oasis of his arms, the relative calm of his mind, the small moments of humor...she feared leaving them.

"I..." T'Spock said. Should she explain the greatest shame of the Vulcan race?

The comm rang and then the caller ID said, "Amanda Grayson."

T'Spock looked to the comm and back to Noyoto.

He fell back but not before T'Spock felt the sinking sensation of defeat across her temples.

Rubbing his eyes with his hands he said, "It's your mother, T'Spock. Answer it."

T'Spock scrambled to pull the top she normally wore to bed over her shoulders and then picked the comm up, careful to keep Noyoto out of the frame.

As her mother's image flickered to life, T'Spock's eyes grew wide at the scene behind Amanda. "Mother," T'Spock said, "You are in San Francisco!" In Starfleet's hangar, to be precise. T'Spock had not expected her for two more days at least. Ships were currently diverted to rescue missions. Her mother and Spock's shuttle had been grounded at Ortz station.

Amanda smiled a smile that did not extend to her eyes. T'Spock touched the screen. Her mother wasn't truly happy...she understood that because she saw the expression through her father's memories. Amanda was merely "putting on a brave face."

"Spock and I were picked up by Sybok..." She closed her eyes. "He has changed a great deal, T'Spock." Amanda sighed and T'Spock knew she had to be there - even if it was only for a few minutes in the hour and seventeen minutes she had before she had to go back on duty.

T'Spock had Noyoto to cling to these past few terrible days, and she had Sarek's memories, too. Her mother was alone in her mind.

T'Spock looked up at Noyoto. He mouthed the word, "Go."

"I'm heading now to the house," said Amanda.

The house in Sunset District, where she'd lived with Sarek when they first married. "I will be there in 27 minutes," said T'Spock."

x x x x

Amanda leaned into T'Spock, and T'Spock withdrew her hand from her mother's forehead. They sat on the couch in the living room of the small house.

"Thank you," said Amanda, putting her head on T'Spock's shoulder. T'Spock felt warm wetness in the fabric of her uniform coat.

"Thank you, for letting me see him again," said Amanda, "If only for a short time."

T'Spock nodded. "You are welcome."

She took her mother's elbows in her hands. There was no rush for her to leave. The Vulcan Embassy had requested that all survivors report to the nearest Embassy or Consulate and register their status. That was where Sybok and her alternate self were now, and Captain Pike had given her leave for the day to do so also.

"How long can you keep him?" her mother murmured into T'Spock's shoulder.

"A few months is all that is normally deemed healthy," said T'Spock. "When I join the colonists on New Vulcan I will find a healer and a suitable vessel for transference."

Drawing back, Amanda dropped her hands into T'Spock's and said, "Join the colonists? You won't stay with Starfleet?"

Through the empathic contact T'Spock could feel mixed emotions of relief and concern.

Looking down at their joined hands, T'Spock said, "I do not know..."

She looked away, and said, "Mother, there are more male survivors than female."

Amanda drew in a long breath. "So?"

"So I believe it is my duty to seek out a Vulcan bondmate."

Surprise fluttered across the link.

"But I thought you and Noyoto...were bonded..." said her mother.

Shocked, T'Spock looked up at her mother's eyes, still red with tears. "Why?"

Amanda blinked. "I...I...I don't know." Looking away she said, "I even had this idea that he was with you when I called."

"We are not bonded," said T'Spock.

Amanda's eyes met T'Spock's again. "Well, it does not matter. You're only half Vulcan, I just know they'll try to bond you with someone unsuitable..."

T'Spock raised an eyebrow, "Someone as unsuitable as I am? Surely they have as much a right to life?"

Amanda's eyes narrowed. Anger flashed across T'Spock's finger pads. "They don't have to confine themselves to Vulcan women. They can look outside of their species. And if they don't consider that an option, well, maybe they don't deserve to live."

T'Spock pulled herself away from her mother. "I am sure that no Vulcan with such a prejudice would agree to bond with me."

"Not if they're in their right mind," said Amanda.

T'Spock stood up.

"Tell me you won't accept an emergency bonding, T'Spock," Amanda said.

T'Spock had access to her father's memories; she knew why he had not allowed her to be bonded to Desalvic.

His bond to T'Yavi, Sybok's mother, had been an emergency bonding. T'Yavi had been coerced by her family at only 19 to bond with Sarek the same day he lost his bond mate. Sarek didn't really have memories of his Pon Farr, just of his consuming grief for his first mate's death - and of T'Yavi's bruised and beaten body when the fires of Pon Farr had passed.

After joining the V'tosh ka'tur T'Yavi committed suicide not long after Sybok's birth. The glimpses Sarek had into her mind made him certain her experience with him was partially to blame for her death.

And perhaps it was.

"I will not allow that to happen, Mother," T'Spock said. "I understand why father would not allow it."

Amanda tilted her head, "And you think he would have allowed what you are contemplating now?"

Lifting her head, T'Spock said, "Yes. You know he would have, Mother. He would have expected I would have grown to...have feelings with any Vulcan I bonded with." Just as he had slowly fallen in love with his first bondmate, T'Sala.

That strange tumultuous feeling T'Spock had for Noyoto Sarek had for both T'Sala and Amanda. Surely if it could happen to Sarek twice, it could happen to T'Spock, too. And Noyoto -

They had no agreement between them. He'd doubtlessly move on. As his bout with the Andorian flu showed, he could be much more cavalier in his physical relations. He'd probably move on more easily than she would. Perhaps a Vulcan bond-mate would be better for her. They would have similar upbringings in common, the same moral code...

...perhaps no humor, and perhaps their minds would be so similar their interactions would be almost...boring.

Amanda shook her head, "But T'Spock, you are not fully Vulcan. You don't know that will happen to you."

T'Spock swallowed. She did not know.

Looking away she said softly. "But Mother, there are so many."

x x x x

The line wound neatly out the door of the Vulcan Embassy and out into the garden. Here the gender ratio wasn't so skewed. But T'Spock noted almost every female she saw was accompanied by family. T'Spock didn't like the way some of the men's eyes followed the girls and young women with their parents. She didn't like the way eyes followed her.

Taking a deep breath, she moved to the back of the line and was hit by such a wave of desolation, despair and desperation she nearly fled. It took a moment for her to realize it was the despair of the Vulcans around her. Backing up a few paces, she put up her shields and then stepped back into the line.

And then at the borders of her consciousness she felt a familiar presence. It felt her shields and withdrew.

"Forgive him," her mother had said. "He didn't understand what was happening. He does now, T'Spock."

She didn't want to be alone here among her fellow refugees and their despair.

Closing her eyes, T'Spock sought out that retreating presence, and then felt an old warmth bloom in her mind.

"Sister!"

She opened her eyes and Sybok was there. He wore a beard and his hair was loose and disheveled, not Vulcan at all. He would be recognized as V'tosh ka'tur by everyone around them. Not that T'Spock cared.

"Spock was allowed to register earlier," said Sybok. "Elders were given priority in the line."

His face was drawn and T'Spock noticed that the roots of his hair appeared to be turning gray. He looked far older than his 36 years.

Sighing, Sybok said, "It has been...a difficult time...When I felt father die I...I decided to leave the colony. My decision was not well received."

His audible sigh in public was...off putting.

"Forgive me," said Sybok. "It has been a long time since I followed the ways of logic."

T'Spock felt his confusion, anger, and resentment across the mental channel between their minds.

_Why was a display of emotion inherently illogical?_

T'Spock blinked. The words were spoken aloud in her mind - the familial link between them had never been this strong.

"I..." Sybok said, "I must ask your forgiveness again. It is too much for me to intrude on your mind, but my..."

T'Spock held up two fingers and reached across the mental link. _It is alright...Brother._

Sybok's frame visibly relaxed. He met her two fingers with his own and T'Spock felt a rush of gratitude.

Stepping closer to her, he scanned the crowd. _You are lucky, _he transmitted across the link._ To be bonded during this time. But where is he? If he could _feel_ how some of the less scrupulous males look at you he would not leave you alone in this crowd._

T'Spock's breath caught in her throat. _But I am not bonded._

And then it was as though her mind was tumbling down a waterfall. Doubt. Confusion. Shame filled her mind, but it was not hers. It was Sybok's.

"I do not know how I could be mistaken," he said aloud, and the feeling of disorientation in his mind was almost physically painful.

Remembering her mother saying, "I thought you and Noyoto...were bonded...," T'Spock swallowed and gazed at the ground.

Without thinking, she moved with the line.

She wasn't bonded, was she? They weren't even bound by the fragile promises of humans. She looked at the empty faces around her and remembered the desperation and despair she'd felt earlier. How could she in good conscience turn away?

She wished she were bonded to Noyoto...then she wouldn't have to go through with this. Even Sarek would have declared it illogical to break a bond with a human to assuage her guilt - she saw that clearly through the scope of his life. Sarek and Amanda were hardly the only bonded Vulcan Human couple. There were others, and some of those bonds had been dissolved due to pressure from the Vulcan family to save the life of a male in Pon Farr. Sarek had fought against these "unbondings"- and been there to help heal the humans left behind when his efforts failed.

Swimming through these thoughts, she didn't realize at first she wasn't completely alone in her own mind anymore.

...and then she did. She looked up at Sybok.

He met her eyes. She felt a wave of guilt across the link between them. _ I am sorry. Since I left the false union of the colony...My mind seeks T'El, but I cannot find her...I...do not know if she is alive or dead or if she will take me back...my mind drifts without harbor..._

T'Spock put her fingers out to him. How many other minds were adrift?

Touching her fingers, Sybok spoke to her mind. _He is human. But you are half human. Perhaps you are -_

She bristled at his words but could not explain why. Taking his fingers back, Sybok looked away and she felt his mind retreat slightly.

They were inside the Embassy and nearing the long row of tables where clerks were recording names and vital statistics of survivors before she felt Sybok's presence in her mind again.

_Sister, I have long turned from the ways of logic, but is survivor's guilt not illogical?_

T'Spock stiffened and went hot knowing where this train of thought was going. _Duty is not illogical._

There was a flash of anger from Sybok, and then she felt him tamping it down. _ Sister, speaking as someone whose bond mate is currently lost - I can tell you, I need more than duty. _

Ahead she heard a clerk ask a male refugee, "Bonded status?"

"Uncertain," said the Vulcan man. His response indicated he didn't know if his mate were dead or alive. Mental shock from the crises, physical unconsciousness, or injury all could be an explanation.

"We will not assign you a mate until the status of your mate is certain," said the clerk.

Sybok's head shot in the direction of the unknown Vulcan. T'Spock followed his gaze. From behind all she could see was a man of average height, average weight, and modest clothing. Just another refugee. A number. An abstraction. He nodded at the clerk and then turned away, his face still in incomplete profile.

Sybok saw something different. Her brother experienced a wave of sympathy and camaraderie. For a moment Sybok's mind vanished from T'Spock's and then it was back.

_He is a good man,_ said Sybok, looking down at his feet. Turning his head to T'Spock, Sybok said, "He deserves more than duty. And you cannot give more to him." The words were spoken softly, but there was rage behind them.

T'Spock turned her head away. Following the line in tense silence, she tried to make her mind a blank slate.

Ahead she heard another Vulcan male say, "40. Unbonded."

"We will try to find you a mate as soon as possible," said the clerk.

7.3 minutes later she stood in front of the same clerk.

"Female," said the clerk touching a PADD. "Name, age and bonded status?"

"S'chn T'chai T'Spock," said T'Spock. "Age 29 Standard Years. Bonded status..."

The clerk looked up at her.

The truth was always logical; Sarek always said that.

"Uncertain," said T'Spock.

**A/N:**

Thanks for reading! If you read, and were moderately entertained, please leave a review. It's the only way fanfiction authors get paid.


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.**

**Special thanks to beta Notes from the Classroom - she's posting new chapters to her terrific fic "Crossing the Equator". Check it out in my faves!**

**Chapter 14**

Noyoto put down the soldering iron and flipped a few switches in the cramped access tunnel.

"Computer," said Noyoto, "I seem to have my ears plugged with wax. Please translate into Ferrengi."

"Negative, that phrase would be offensive in the Ferrengi tongue," said the Enterprise's computer. "Translation denied."

Noyoto smiled. Wiping sweat off of his brow, he packed up his tools. The Universal Translator had blown a fuse in Deck 8. He'd spent most of his shift locating the burnout and then repairing it.

Crawling out of the access conduit he was hit with a blast of cold air. The emergency warp coils that helped the ship limp back to Earth were being replaced by more permanent coils. Until then the climate control was still set to cold, and the lights were still dim.

Checking his comm he saw he had a message...and that he had 3 minutes left before the shuttle for the repair crew returned to Earth. He broke into a jog. He'd had enough camping for a long time - and this time he wouldn't have anyone to help him keep his bed warm.

He made it into the shuttle with 30 seconds to spare.

He checked the message. Not surprisingly it wasn't from T'Spock; it was from Kirk. He scanned the note quickly. _"Just to let you know, your girlfriend testified in my defense. I'm cleared of charges of mutiny. Garrovick has asked me to serve on the USS _Republic_...I'm a Lieut now, Lieut. Given the circumstances, being demoted from 1st isn't so bad."_

Grinning, Noyoto typed back fast with his thumbs as the shuttle cleared for liftoff. _"I'll make Lieut Com before you. Capt Pike made me com officer of the Enterprise." And then he hit send._

His mood was surprisingly light. Which it shouldn't be. His...girlfriend...lover...friend was leaving him...but he couldn't bring himself to be depressed about it. It had weighed on him for a few hours this morning, and then that weight had suddenly lifted. He was convinced there might be a gas leak of some sort in the conduit that was making him happy.

His girlfriend...lover...friend was leaving him. He should be depressed.

But nope. He wasn't. For some reason, he couldn't quite believe it.

As the shuttle settled to Earth in Starfleet's hangar he wondered if maybe the human brain was only equipped to handle so much trauma and then proceeded to block any bad news out. But that didn't seem right.

"You look happy," said a pretty Eurasian tech he had never seen before.

He blinked. He was actually smiling from ear to ear. "I think there was a gas leak in the power conduit in Deck 8."

Laughing, she said, "Wish I'd been there with you," and winked.

...an open invitation if he ever heard one, one that he should really take, given the circumstances.

Instead his face went hot and his smile vanished. She was cute, but she wasn't T'Spock. Who wasn't his anymore, if she ever was...

But no...she was...no had been.

His brow furrowed as the shuttle door opened. He unbuckled his seat belt and looked over once more at the pretty tech. "Maybe I'll see you around," he said.

She looked confused, or disappointed...he didn't have time to think about it.

He had to get out that door because...T'Spock was waiting for him. He knew it like he knew the next breath he took would fill his lungs.

He was up out of his seat and out the door a few seconds later. From the top of the stairs by the shuttle he scanned the hangar. The lighting was dim and the floor was almost empty. Steam from coil exhaust filled the air. No T'Spock. He blinked. Was he losing his mind?

"Hey, you looking for someone?" said the pretty tech at his side. How had she gotten there?

"Uh, no, no," said Noyoto, and then he practically ran down the steps. He left the main walkway suddenly wanting to be alone.

He was so sure T'Spock would be here. Shaking his head, he passed between two shuttles and drew to a stop.

An old man with, very tall despite slightly stooped shoulders, was walking ahead of him, arms clasped behind his back. Even from behind, his pointed ears gave away his heritage. Noyoto knew that the hangar had been utilized by some of the refugees; perhaps the old gentleman had gotten lost?

"Excuse me, Sir," said Noyoto. "Can I help you?"

The old man turned, and Noyoto blinked; it was Spock, _the _Spock.

Spock stood a little straighter and came forward. "I do not believe we have been introduced."

"Lieutenant Uhura, Sir," said Noyoto. "Communications."

Spock blinked. "Nyota Uhura?"

Noyoto tilted his head, suddenly understanding the Romulan Doctor Anil's obscure comment, _there was no he._ "Almost, Sir. That would have been my name if I'd been born a girl - but my father thought it was too feminine for a boy. It's Noyoto, Sir."

"Ahhh..." said the old Vulcan dropping his head. "From the New Swahilli, meaning nova."

"Yes, Sir," said Noyoto. He looked on the old man with compassion. All Vulcans had lost a world; this man had lost an entire universe.

"Things are a bit different here, aren't they, sir?" Noyoto said.

"Indeed," said Spock, lifting his head. Was that a bit of a twinkle in his eye?

Noyoto smiled, "And I'm guessing I was quite a bit different in your universe."

"Quite," said the old Vulcan - or half Vulcan, his lips pulling at the corners. "As different as I seem to be from your T'Spock."

Noyoto looked up at the ceiling. "I don't know if I want to know too much about what I am like as a woman."

"Would it insult your masculinity if I said you were quite lovely?" said Spock.

Noyoto met the old man's eyes; they glinted with mischievousness. Shaking his head, Noyoto said, "No, no, not at all."

Spock raised an eyebrow, the slight smile on his face widening just a bit more.

"Well, maybe just a little," Noyoto admitted sheepishly.

Nodding, the Vulcan added, "And she was a very dear friend."

That was when Noyoto caught the past tense. "I'm sorry, Sir."

Spock just shook his head.

T'Spock's voice sounded from behind. "Lieutenant Uhura?"

Noyoto turned. T'Spock stood a few meters behind him, arms at her side, her face flushed slightly green. She seemed a bit out of breath. Noyoto's mind went to other times he'd seen her flushed between the sheets and felt himself go warm.

T'Spock came forward. "I tried to meet your shuttle when it landed, but I was detained by Captain Pike."

"Oh," said Noyoto. She had tried to meet him - although they hadn't planned anything. Just like he'd been imagining on the shuttle.

She took a step closer. "Number One has been commissioned as Captain of the Excelsior."

"I see," said Noyoto, not sure he did.

"Captain Pike has asked me to be First Officer aboard the Enterprise," said T'Spock.

Noyoto tilted his head, almost annoyed. He wanted to scream, just tell me if you're leaving or not, woman? And then it hit him, if she wasn't, did it matter? Didn't Vulcan couples spend years apart, joined only by a mental bond?

"I accepted," said T'Spock.

Noyoto found his jaw getting tight with impatience.

"Congratulations," said Spock. "I served under Pike for many years. It would be fascinating to compare notes," said Spock, stepping closer to them.

Looking to him, T'Spock said, "Indeed, it would be at some later time." She looked back at Noyoto.

"I quite enjoyed speaking to our mother," said Spock. "It has been a long time since I have enjoyed her company. And I hear you carry our father's katra."

T'Spock looked at Spock. "I do. I am sure we have much to discuss."

"It is a pity that we could not speak at the Embassy, but I was detained by Starfleet Intelligence after I registered," said Spock drawing slightly closer.

"Indeed," said T'Spock nodding her head towards him.

Noyoto ground his teeth. To hell with Vulcan propriety. "And? Are you going through with it? Are you going to bond with …" He lifted his hand and gestured hopelessly towards the ceiling.

"Perhaps I should take this up with you at another time?" said Spock.

"Yes," Noyoto and T'Spock said in unison, both turning their heads to him.

Raising an eyebrow, and, if Noyoto wasn't mistaken, smirking ever so slightly, Spock turned and ambled away. "Fascinating," Noyoto heard the old man say.

Noyoto looked back at T'Spock.

"When I was asked for my bonded status I indicated that I was uncertain," T'Spock said.

"Uncertain?" said Noyoto.

"I believe that is a fair analysis of our situation," said T'Spock looking at the ground. "We have not discussed the matter, and I could not speak for you."

She met his eyes again, a stray strand of hair askew on her brow. "I will not be pressed to bond with anyone until the situation is resolved."

"Until the situation is resolved..." Noyoto said.

"Until we have clarity as to what the situation is between us." T'Spock put her hands behind her back. "There is no rush. If it takes months... or..." She swallowed and seemed to go a little paler. "I understand in some human relationships it take years."

Noyoto stepped closer to her. He reached to smooth the errant hair and caught himself. They were in a public place, even if it was mostly deserted.

T'Spock leaned her forehead into his touch. And suddenly Noyoto felt like his heart was tightly wound in rubber bands and any moment he might burst. No, T'Spock might burst.

"I don't think it will take years..." he said softly. He realized he'd already pretty much made up his mind. He felt a weight lift from his shoulders. No, both their shoulders.

He'd already made up _his_ mind. T'Spock looked up at him and he smiled.

**A/N:**

I think that this definitely needs a bridge scene! So I actually have one more chapter to write.


End file.
